Twilight on a Broken Star
by DCFanatic4life
Summary: Sometimes people get second chances...Chris Jericho and Stephanie McMahon are about to get theirs...*Completed*
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or real people in this story. The characters are owned by WWE and the real people own themselves. This story contains swearing and some adult situations, but nothing explicit.

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A/N: So this is a new story, and it's a little bit different from my other stuff. It's a little bit AU, not at first, but it will be, I guess. Anyways, I really hope that you like it, and if you do, please leave a review, and if you want to be brutal with me, I totally welcome brutal, so go right ahead, just review and let me know if I should continue. :)

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On this night, everything made sense. 

Stephanie's life was good on this night. She couldn't complain, and she wouldn't complain. She was at a chic cocktail party held by her parents for the executives of the company and of the advertisers and other media market people that dealt with her father and WWE. She was here to play the perfect princess of Vince McMahon, to charm everyone here with her rapier's wit. Bat a few eyelashes and you had them eating out of the palm of your hand.

Stephanie was pretty, and she knew it, and while that's usually a lethal combination, in this case it wasn't. Stephanie had grown up very grounded, and she was rather down-to-Earth when you knew her. Tonight wasn't a good example of this, though, because she was playing a part. Wearing a deep blue cocktail dress, with her hair magnificently curled and styled, her makeup impeccable, it wasn't her, not in the slightest.

But Stephanie had always been good at playing the part.

She laughed at some stupid joke someone said as she grabbed a new flute of champagne of the tray of a passing waiter. She took a sip, glancing at Paul, who was speaking with someone about something. He smirked at her and raised an eyebrow and she laughed against her glass bringing it down from her lips, licking them seductively. Paul's hazel eyes turned a little bit darker as he observed her and it was her turn to raise an eyebrow.

She flipped her newly dyed blonde hair over her shoulder and gave him her own version of a seductive look. Paul was on the verge of taking her to the coat check closet and having his way with her, but he refrained, knowing that she wouldn't agree to go with him. She understood her place was here, to charm and please her father's associates so that the business would flourish. She finished off her conversation and Paul came over and kissed her softly on the forehead.

"How're you feeling?" he asked.

"I'm a little tired," she confessed, "ready to go home, but I don't want to skip out of here early. I'm rather enjoying the champagne."

"I bet you are," he teased gently, wrapping his free arm around her waist and pulling her closer until her head was resting against his chest. "Are you sure you don't want to go though? I don't think your parents would mind if you tell them that you're tired. You have been working hard all week."

"I know, but this is important to them," she said with a shrug. "And what's important to them is important to me. We don't have anything better to do tonight anyways, we might as well enjoy a party while we're here."

"Can we at least sit down?" he asked.

"Yeah, we can sit down," she agreed as he grabbed her hand and led her over to an empty table. She sat down and watched the dance floor. A disco ball hung down and made the lights dance across the room in a mesmerizing way.

She set her glass down and leaned her chin on her hand as she felt Paul rub her back slowly, as if trying to lull her to sleep, which couldn't be the case. She was just content to watch the people having a good time at her father's insistence. Paul watched as the lights danced off her blue eyes and leaned over to kiss her temple. She smiled slightly at the contact, glancing over at him while turning her head slightly and giving him that same smile.

She was happy in this moment, happy in a moment that was neither chaotic nor completely calm. Sometimes she wondered how she had gotten to be so happy…well, she wasn't happy all the time, she could admit that, but nobody was happy all the time. It just wasn't possible to never have any adversity in her life. But for this moment, she was happy with where her life had taken her.

"Come on babe, let's go," Hunter whispered in her ear.

"Huh?" she asked, turning towards him.

"You fell asleep just now," he explained to her. "I told your parents that you were exhausted and they said that we could go home. I got our coats, so why don't we just get the hell out of here?"

"Okay," she nodded sleepily, standing up. Paul slipped her coat over her shoulders and she gratefully leaned into his side as they walked out of the elegant ballroom and into the black darkness. She gazed up at the sky, and marveled at what she saw. "Hey Paul…"

"What?"

"Look up at the sky," she ordered and he looked up.

"What are we looking at, babe?" he asked.

"Nothing, just the stars, they're bright tonight."

"That's because we're out of the big city so there aren't as many lights around," he told her as he led them to their car, but she paused and stopped him.

"You know, they're only flaming balls of gas, but from down here, they look really pretty, almost like diamonds in the sky. It's kind of like…you know, someone's little gift to us…that we get to see these stars as diamonds."

Paul chuckled, "Look at you, waxing all poetic. Do I need to start thinking of you as a tortured artist? Has being the head of creative finally got to you?"

"No," she said, bringing her gaze back down to Earth. "I just…I used to watch the stars you know, back when everything was a whole lot simpler, and sometimes when I look up at them…they haven't changed and I feel like that girl again. I don't know why I'm thinking these things, it might be the champagne or the fact that my life makes me have to go to cocktail parties, but sometimes I wish I were looking up at the stars again."

"They'll always be right there," he told her kindly.

She nodded, "Yeah, they'll always be right there. That's comforting, huh?"

"I'll always be right here too, unless I get in the car, and you decide to stand there all night. I won't hate you if that's what you decide you want to do…"

Stephanie gave one last long look to the sky. She then turned and got into the car. The stars would have to wait for another day. Somewhere along the car trip, she had fallen asleep because the next thing she knew, she was being jostled as Paul tried to lift her out of the car. She opened her eyes slowly, looking up at her husband. He smiled down at her as her eyes opened.

"Hey there, sleepyhead. How much champagne _did _you drink?" he asked her teasingly. She laughed as he set her down, but still keeping in contact with her body.

"Not that much, I think everything is just catching up with me," she explained. "You know how it is, you're a wrestler, you're exhausted a lot of the time."

"True," he nodded as he unlocked the door and turned on the light. "I'm going to make sure things are cleaned up around here, why don't you go upstairs?"

"Yeah, I'll be in getting ready for bed."

"Good, you need it."

She stuck her tongue out at him as she ascended the staircase and went upstairs. It was mercifully quiet and the silence comforted her ears. She went into their bedroom and went into her large walk-in closet. She stripped down to her underwear, rooting around for some pajamas or something. She found an old t-shirt that she had loved once upon a time and in her hazy, slightly tipsy state, she grabbed it and slipped it on before going to was her makeup off and brush her teeth before bed.

By the time Paul came back upstairs and to their bedroom, she was curled up on her side, her eyes drooping slowly. She had wanted to wait for him to get to bed too. He did so quickly and climbed into the bed, coming behind her and cradling her body against his. She smiled sleeping as he kissed her neck.

"I've never seen you wear this shirt before," he whispered.

"Just found it, it's comfortable," she told him.

"Interesting," he said, looking at the ratty, old t-shirt.

Stephanie was already asleep though. So Paul fell asleep as well. Stephanie woke up a couple of hours later though, and she was surprisingly not tired. Or at least she wasn't as tired, but a good couple hours sleep gives you the impression that you've been refreshed and replenished. Hunter had turned over onto the other side of the bed and was snoring lightly, well, not so lightly, but lightly for him.

She got out of bed and pulled on her robe as she went downstairs, thinking about what she had been thinking earlier. She went out into the backyard, the dark not so intimidating that it made her want to go inside. The moon was still high in the sky and lit her way over to the deck chairs they had by their pool. She settled down into one, pulling her robe over her uncovered legs. It was the end of summer and the beginning of fall, so it was cold, but not obscenely so. She was comfortable as she leaned her head back to look at the stars, the same ones from before, the same ones from a long time ago.

When she was little, she used to think that the moon followed her wherever she went. She would tell her mother to tell the moon to stop following her because she didn't like it. Her mother had gently explained that the moon wasn't following her, and though she wasn't quite satisfied with the explanation, she had accepted it and moved on. She hadn't taken the time to look at the sky for a long time after that. And then something had changed and it seemed like she had all the time in the world to look at the sky, even when she didn't.

It had been a long time ago now, and she had still been in college when she had the time, and even though it was her last year in college and she should've been studying or writing or planning her future, she would look at the stars and just…well, she'd think about what she had, and what she thought she was going to have, beyond WWE, beyond her career, but just in her life. She'd think about the relationship she was in at the time.

"_You know, the stars never change…"_

"_They don't?" she asked._

"_No, they don't, they're always going to be the same, wherever you go…I mean, you know, in the Northern Hemisphere, the stars in the Southern Hemisphere are different."_

"_I get your meaning," she laughed lazily, a drawn out laugh like molasses, but just as sweet._

"_But when you look up at the sky, today, tomorrow, whenever, it's never going to change, not to your mind, it'll just always be the same."_

"_So what are you saying?" she asked._

"_I'm just saying that whenever you miss me, whenever you want to think of me, just look at the stars and know that wherever I'm looking, they're exactly the same and if we ever get separated, by time, distance, whatever, if there's any moment where we're not together and you miss me…look at the stars, because they're exactly the same as this moment."_

This was the first time she'd looked at the stars in a long time, but they were always there, every night, they showed up, as if on cue, knowing that they were going to be there, regardless of whether or not she tipped her chin back to look at them. Either way, they'd be there, waiting for her to look up at them again, maybe not with the same wonder, or sense of awe, but just to remember that they were still there, and they were always going to be there as a reminder. She hadn't looked in a long time though, had no occasion to look in what seemed forever. But as she gazed at the night sky that lay before her like a large, dark blanket of twinkling diamonds, she remembered and she found herself comforted by one fact…

They were exactly the same.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Thank you so much for the reviews last week. I really like this story and I hope that you come to enjoy it too, and please, please, please leave a review so that I know if you're enjoying it or not. It really helps to know if this is being enjoyed, so please review so I can keep updating. :)

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Chris really didn't have anything to complain about.

Life was good for our blond-haired hero. Taking time off from WWE was one of the best decisions he had ever made. He felt rejuvenated, something he hadn't really felt in a long time. It was amazing what some good rest would do for you. It made him almost feel like a new man. The new short haircut didn't hurt either, but overall, he just felt really good.

He knew that Jessica liked having him around too and it was like they were newlyweds again. Okay, so it wasn't like they were totally having sex all the time, but it had definitely picked up since he had left. He missed wrestling sometimes, he would admit to it, but he didn't miss it as much as he thought he would. It was just another part of his life that he was moving on from, and he had accomplished everything that he had wanted to accomplish, and so he had moved on to greener pastures.

"Chris, come on, you said we could watch a movie," Jessica said as she sat on the counter in the kitchen. Her legs were dangling over the edge, swinging back and forth carelessly. That's how they felt now, like they were just a couple of kids with no parents. He had never felt like this before.

He had already been in WWE when he had married Jessica, so they had never really gotten anything that resembled a normal life. They had dated while he was a wrestler, were married while he was a wrestler, but now he was just Chris Irvine, normal guy…not totally normal, but normal for him and his life. But whoever said living a normal life was overrated seriously needed to have lived his life over the past few years.

"I know, we will, we will," he told her, laughing slightly at her impatience as he stirred the pasta sauce. "But don't you want to be able to eat something while we watch so that we don't completely starve?"

"We could starve," Jessica shrugged as she looked at him. "I just want to be able to cuddle with you and watch the movie. Dinner can wait, everything can wait."

"You're a nutcase," Chris joked around.

"But you still love me right?"

"I have no reason not to," he said, leaning over to kiss her. She kissed him back before pulling away and pointing towards the sauce, which he had been neglecting to stir and which was now bubbling up kind of high. He went back to stirring and she reached out to rub his shoulder.

"I'm really glad that we're here right now," she told him softly. He looked up at her to see that she had a soft smile on her face. He smiled back.

"It's definitely different. Good different though."

"Do you…do you think that we could make this kind of a permanent thing?" she asked shyly and he looked at her, wondering what she meant by that. She looked embarrassed to even be saying the words so he put the spoon down and gave her his full attention.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, that maybe, maybe we can just have this life, you know," Jessica said in a small voice, like she was asking something completely terrible of her husband. "Just to make this…our lives from now on, not you going away all the time."

"Are you asking me to give up wrestling…for good, to never go back?" Chris asked her, hoping to clarify.

"Yes, that's what I'm asking," she said, sighing and staring out the window. "It's just, this past year has been so wonderful, getting to see you everyday, getting to actually talk to you face-to-face, it's something that I've been wanting for so long. I've never really gotten to have it with you, that normal relationship, and now that I have it…I don't think that I want to give it back."

"That's a fair way of looking at it."

"It's not selfish of me?" she asked.

"No, it's definitely not selfish of you," he told her, reaching up to brush some of her blonde hair over her shoulder. "You're my wife, it's well within your rights to tell me your opinion. Definitely well within your rights."

"Are you sure though? I didn't want it to be too straight forward. I just…I really like where we're at right now, Chris, and I think that we can finally have that future that we've been talking about so much. We talk and talk and talk about what we want out of our lives, what we want to do, but with wrestling, we put that on the backburner and I'm tired of that, I want _our_ life."

Chris hadn't realized that Jessica was so passionate about this, but now he could see it clear as day. It was a valid point; they had been living his life for the past several years. She had to take a step back to wrestling, and it had to be frustrating for her. At the same time though, she was asking him something that was pretty big, in his estimation. She was asking him to never return to his dream, to never return to the ring or the company that had given him both his biggest ups and lowest lows.

"I get that," Chris said slowly, staring down at the red pool of pasta sauce that he had just been stirring. The bubbling it was doing now couldn't be good for the pan, but the bubbling inside of him might be worse. "I really need to think about this, Jess, you understand that right?"

"I do understand that."

Chris took the sauce off the burner and set it on a cool burner before turning to her. "I think I'm going to go up to my office to think about this, I really need to think about this, if that's okay with you?"

"It is, I just…I didn't know how else to bring it up."

"It's fine, totally fine," he said, but he was distracted and she knew it. She let him be as he turned, wiping his hands on a paper towel as he left the room.

He walked upstairs in a sort of a daze before heading into his office and closing the door. He just needed to shut Jessica out right now. He wasn't in a bad mood and he certainly wasn't mad at her, he just needed to be by himself right now. He needed to make a decision by himself. He had heard Jessica's side of the story, but now he needed to form his own side of the story, his own way of looking and feeling about this.

Unconsciously he pulled a random CD from his extensive collection, and stuck it in the player. The first song was half-finished when he realized what song he had put into the CD player and he groaned inwardly. He hadn't meant to pick this particular CD, hadn't even listened to it in years, but it still sat in his collection. He would much rather get rid of it, but there was just something that was stopping him from doing so. He went and switched the song off and sat in silence, his head in his hands.

There was so much to think about, but that's what happened when you had to give up everything to make one person happy. But Jessica had done the same for him, had given up a lot of things to make him happy. It was his turn to make her happy and he knew without a shadow of a doubt that she had been happier in the past year than at any other point in their relationship. She had relished in the fact that she finally had him all to herself. It had to feel really good for her to feel that way, really good.

But could he just walk away completely. He had had a good time this past year, he wasn't going to lie, but to never go back, that thought hadn't even crossed his mind. He had always planned to go back, had always planned to make that triumphant return. Had always planned to see his friends, the people he regarded as his second family, to hang out with them, laugh over the good times, and watch people when they weren't looking.

Saying that he wouldn't be back was like…it almost felt like giving up, but he owed it to Jessica to try this new life. He owed her that much. She had sacrificed so much for him and now it was his turn to do the same. That's what love was all about, realizing what was good for the other person and trying to achieve that for them. It was one of those difficult but necessary lessons that you learned when it was too late. After having your heart broken a few times, you learned and then you didn't mess up the next time.

He didn't want to mess up with Jessica. He had some relationships in the past that had left him a little on the vulnerable side, but Jessica had been a champion from the start, accepting his life and actually embracing it and incorporating herself into it. She had made sacrifices and understood situations unlike most of his ex-girlfriends, and he did love her for that. He did love her and he was happy with her. He couldn't complain about his life, and he wouldn't complain about his life because everything was going his way, and now it was time for everything to go Jessica's way.

There was a soft knocking at the door and Chris went up to unlock it before going back to his desk. Jessica had heard him unlock the door and took that as the invitation to be let inside. She peeked her head in first, her blonde hair falling around her face, framing it in the doorway. She stepped inside a moment later, coming over to his desk and sitting herself down on his lap.

"I'm sorry I brought it up to you like that," she told him, leaning her forehead against the side of his head.

"It wasn't that, it's just a big decision."

"I know, and if you don't, I completely understand that, I hope you know that," she explained. "I know how much you still love wrestling, and if you don't want to give up, by all means, please, go back and be happy."

"But then you wouldn't be happy," he told her and she shrugged. He shook his head and continued, "Jess, you have done so much for me over the years, you have no idea. You've been my rock in all of this. I knew that you would always be there."

"That's something I really needed to hear," she whispered, her voice full of loving emotion.

"I think that I should do this for you," Chris told her. "You've done so much, you've given up so much for me and for my career, that you should be able to look at me and know that I would absolutely do the same."

"Wait, so you…"

"I'll give it up. I'll give it up so we can have the life that you've wanted for so long," Chris told her, hoping that she would be happy after he said that. She looked at him and she couldn't contain the grin that was starting to form on her face. Chris smiled because she was smiling, and he liked to make her happy. He was glad that he was making her happy.

"I know that this was hard for you."

"Yeah, it was, I'm not going to lie, but I want to do this for you."

Jessica nodded. "You won't regret the decision, Chris, I promise that you won't. I'll be the best wife that you could ever hope for, I swear to God."

"Hey, no need for promises and all of that, we're married, it's supposed to be a compromise, you can't just give, give, give and expect me to just take forever. I have to do the same thing for you. It's my turn to give."

"So can we go watch that movie now?" she asked.

"Yeah, you go set it up, I'm just going to put this CD away."

"Okay," she said, bounding out of the room happily.

Chris walked over to the CD player and took out the offending CD. It had really been years since he had listened to this particular CD. He thought for a moment and then put it back in the CD player, putting on a particular song. He smiled and let the music swirl around him as he went to turn out the light, humming the tune. It brought a smile to his face, it always had, a smile that nobody really got to see. It wasn't his lazy smile, or his mischievous smile, it was a secret smile that only one other person knew about, and that was enough.

He hoped to share that secret again someday.


	3. Chapter 3

Days fade into night, which fades into day, and then so forth and so on. We live on a continuous loop of morning to night, then night to morning. We hem and haw through our lives, content to be where we are, or striving for something we can never be. We look back at decisions we've made, or paths we've chosen and either smile or regret as we wait for that next sunrise or coming sunset. We live on this loop, moment after moment after moment strung together like an intricate necklace.

But sometimes, if the clock ticks just right, if the moment pauses in one instant between the ticking of a clock, things can change. The sun will still rise and set, the day will still be long and the nights longer, but things change. That path we regret, or were content upon vanishes, leaving behind it a new path, a new set of intricate designs that we call our lives, and we're thrust into a world not exactly our own. But the sun continues to rise and continues to set, and we continue to get up in our endless loop of days upon months upon years...

"Mommy…"

Stephanie snuggled deeper into the soft covers around her. She pulled it tighter on her body, trying to draw warmth from it. Had someone turned the heater down or something because it was positively chilly in the room and she hated a chilly room. She burrowed her head further into the pillow as well, noting how comfortable it was.

In the distance, she heard a baby crying and vaguely wondered if Paul had left the television on all night on some weird station with a baby crying. Maybe it was like the Discovery Channel or a soap opera or something. She blocked it out as she went back to sleep, not even bothering to open up her eyes. The scene would change anyways and she'd be left with some other sound that would be a lot more soothing than a baby.

"Mommy," a voice whispered and Stephanie was seriously about to grab the remote and turn off the damn television with its stupid show or whatever was on. Now she was hearing a kid and she was getting pissed off that she was being interrupted. Not that she hated kids, she just didn't have the experience with them.

"Mommy, get up," a little girl said as Stephanie felt something poke her in the nose.

Stephanie thought it was Paul and swatted the hand away, but froze when the hand was much, much too tiny to be Paul's hand. Stephanie opened her eyes and found herself looking into the face of a little girl with curly, brown hair pulled back into a couple of pigtails. She was wearing a nightgown and grinning right at her. Stephanie gasped audibly and jumped back in bed as she looked down at the little girl.

"Who are you?" Stephanie asked, frightened.

"Mommy!" the little girl said, rolling her eyes. "Time to get up!"

Stephanie shook her head furiously, then took another moment to look around the room. This wasn't her room, this wasn't her room at all. This was someone else's room. Had she gotten drunk at the party last night and ended up in someone else's house? No, because she remembered going home with Paul, her husband. She remembered him laying in bed with her. Oh…a dream, this had to be a dream, this all had to be a dream. A very elaborate, very real-feeling dream, that's all it had to be. She would wake up soon and everything would be just fine and she wouldn't be the wiser about this.

So she sat there a moment, this little girl staring at her like she was crazy. She decided to pinch herself and when she did, it hurt, and that scared her. She wasn't supposed to hurt when she got pinched, and this world wasn't supposed to keep staying here once she became aware that it was a dream. She should've woken up by now, God, she should have woken up by now, but that little girl was still staring at her, her little face screwed up in concentration.

"Wake up, wake up, wake up," Stephanie whispered, willing herself to wake up from this very odd nightmare. Maybe she'd still be in that deck chair by the pool. Yes, she had fallen asleep by the pool.

"Mommy, I'm hungry," the little girl said, touching Stephanie's leg and when Stephanie felt the touch, she jumped nearly out of her skin and screamed.

"Jess, Jessica!"

Stephanie gasped and looked to her side where Chris Irvine's head was now becoming visible. Stephanie screamed a second time as she saw him, scrambling out of the bed altogether and standing there. She looked down, hoping she wasn't naked or anything, but she wasn't, thankfully. She was dressed in what she had worn to bed last night, so that was a comforting thought, maybe this really was just a dream.

"Stephanie!" Chris said, looking around in shock. "Where the hell am I?"

"Where the hell are you! Where the hell am _I_?" Stephanie screeched. "I don't know where I am, I was in bed last night, or by the pool, but I was with Paul! I was with Paul and we were together, and I was sleeping and I woke up and here you are, why are you here!"

"What the hell…" Chris said to himself. "I was watching a movie with Jessica, with my _wife_ and I woke up here, what the hell are you doing here, Stephanie!"

"I don't know, I don't know," she answered, hopping from one foot to the other. "Wait, wait, wait, so you're…you're you right, this isn't our life right? I'm married to Paul Levesque and you're married to Jessica Irvine right, please tell me that's your reality. Please tell me we haven't been married for God knows how long."

"I'm married to Jessica Irvine, I've been married to Jessica for the past six years."

"Where are we!" Stephanie yelled, looking around as if this were some elaborate joke being played on them. "Were we drugged? Did someone drug us and put us into this weird…thing?"

"I don't know," Chris said. "I have no idea. Who would've drugged us? Were you somewhere where you could be drugged?"

"A cocktail party, you?"

"No, I was at home, I had nothing to do, I was just…what the hell is all of this, where the hell is this, are we in a house or something? Is this like a television set?"

Stephanie went over to the window and threw open the curtains. What she saw was not the expanse of land that she and Paul owned in Connecticut. No, what she saw was New York City. There was no way that she could've gotten to New York from Connecticut without knowing, there just wasn't any way. Chris got up from the bed and stood behind her and she could hear him gasp a little as he looked down to the busy morning streets.

"Holy shit," he whispered.

Stephanie turned to look at him, "Chris, what happened?"

Stephanie started shaking as she stood there. She was scared, she was scared of what was going on, who she was with, this world that she was suddenly thrust into. Her lip trembled as she took in the morning sun against the buildings around her. She didn't want to turn around. New York was familiar compared to what was behind her back. If she just ignored what was behind her and continued to believe that this was a dream, then none of this would be real. This wasn't real. This was not the real world.

"Do you hear a baby crying?" Chris asked softly.

"Don't talk to me!" Stephanie screeched, turning around abruptly and wanting to rush to any place where she could be alone. She was having trouble with her thoughts right now. They were getting to her, and she was being submerged by the heaviness of her thoughts. She ran towards a door, but found it was a closet and then tried searching for the bathroom, which she found a moment later. She shut the door behind her and leaned back against the door, sobbing and sliding down the door.

Chris stood there, watching as she shut the door. He turned back to the window. He had been with Jessica not a couple hours before, right? It all seemed so hazy right now that he couldn't even remember if that had really been what he had been doing hours before this moment. He swallowed hard, and while he wasn't as demonstrative as Stephanie was, he was shaking just as much inside. This wasn't his life, but if Stephanie was here and acting like that, this couldn't be a dream, could it? No, dreams were never this vivid.

"Daddy?" a tiny voice came from behind him. Chris closed his eyes in fear. He had briefly seen the little girl when he had been rushing towards the window to see if he was in some sort of weird planet that wasn't Earth, but he hadn't really looked at her. She was calling him daddy, and he wanted to run out of this room and track down his wife and his life, and get the hell away from whatever the hell this place was. This wasn't his life and whoever that little girl was, he certainly wasn't her daddy.

"Daddy," the pitiful voice said again and this time he could hear the tears in her voice as clear as day. Chris felt bad, this little girl didn't know what was going on. He turned and looked at her and had to take a step back. This was Stephanie's daughter, there was no question about it, this little girl looked like Stephanie, except she had his nose and he could see himself in her smile.

"Oh hey…" Chris realized he didn't know her name, so he went with, "you."

"Daddy, what's wrong with Mommy?" the little girl asked.

"Mommy's having a bad morning," Chris said, kneeling to her level. He looked at her, "How are you?"

"I'm okay," she shrugged. "But baby is crying."

"Oh yeah, that's…around here, right?" he asked, trying to remain calm. He couldn't frighten this little girl. He wasn't too sure of who she was, though he could guess from the way she referred to him and Stephanie as mommy and daddy, but he didn't know how old this girl was, or where she had come from, or where anything here had come from.

"He's in his room, Daddy," she said, like it was silly of him to ask.

He wanted to go speak to Stephanie, but since she had holed herself up in the bathroom and that baby had been crying at least since he had woken up, he figured that he would have to do the right thing in this situation and actually go and see this baby. He wondered if it would be his too. Now he was just thinking crazily, this wasn't his life. He wanted nothing more than to go home. He didn't want to live this life, not with these kids he didn't know…or her…Stephanie. He couldn't live with Stephanie.

Stephanie heard Chris and that little girl walk out of the room and she slipped out of the bathroom and went into the bedroom, investigating the place. She looked at the large television hanging from the wall and the bed with the sheets she had just been burrowing herself in. On the dresser there were some pictures and she recognized her family in front of the WWE logo, and she was reassured that at least that was the same and she wasn't some poor person or something. Not that this apartment looked poor, it actually looked like a penthouse if the size of that closet was to be believed.

There were pictures of that little girl with various people and then at the end, she was staring at a picture of herself at her wedding, except it wasn't her wedding to Paul, this was a wedding picture of her smashing cake into Chris's face. She stood there, staring at for a long time. She didn't remember these events, but staring at the picture stirred a kind of anger into the pit of her stomach as she grabbed the frame and threw it against the wall, making it shatter and fall to the ground.

"Oh, that's nice Stephanie, just go around breaking all these people's things."

"They're _our_ things," she snapped as Chris walked into the bedroom. She pointed at his arms. "What the hell is that?"

"It's a baby," Chris said, rolling his eyes. "What? Don't tell me the Ice Queen has never seen a baby before? Wow, and here I thought that you lured them to your house made of gingerbread and stuck them in the oven."

"Very funny," Stephanie seethed. "Don't tell me that one is ours too."

"Well, considering that it was in this place and he has your eyes, I'm guessing that maybe he does," Chris said. "What the hell is going on, Stephanie?"

"You expect me to know!" she screamed at him and she sat down on the bed heavily. "Yesterday everything made sense and now I don't even know where I am or who I'm with or what the hell that little girl's name is. Is she ours too? Is this our life? What the hell…"

"I don't know," he said. "I'm just…I'm trying to hold it together…for you."

She looked up at him in surprise. "For me?"

"Well…you tend to freak out about things." 

"Oh, shove it up your ass, jackass," Stephanie told him. "I don't freak out."

"You just did, with the bathroom, with the picture frame. I mean, you just freak out and I'm trying to keep my cool. We'll just have to find Paul and Jessica and maybe they'll know, maybe they were…transported too."

"Oh give me a break, Chris, this is a dream! It has to be!" 

"Does this feel like a dream to you!" Chris shouted at her.

"Just stop yelling at me!" she demanded, rubbing her eyes. "Just stop yelling at me, I just…I have to figure out a way out of here. I can't be here, I can't do this, I don't know what I'm doing or who I'm with…I'm lost, I'm completely lost."

"Your shirt…"

Stephanie looked down. "What about it?"

"Nothing," he said, shaking his head. "We'll figure this out, Stephanie, we will."

"That's easier said than done."

"We will…we will."

Another sunrise, another sunset.

A new timeline, a new life…


	4. Chapter 4

Stephanie had changed. That was the extent of productivity she had had thus far this morning. But there was nothing normal about this morning, nothing normal at all. It was the strangest moment of her life thus far, and she had been through her share of strange moments. She was sitting in the kitchen of the two-story penthouse that she was in. She wouldn't say this was her home even though evidence pointed to the contrary.

She stared at her left hand. She wasn't wearing her real wedding ring, somehow the ring had been changed, the only thing on her entire body that had changed in this weird transformation. The ring was simple enough, a platinum band with a diamond pave setting. There was no engagement ring, and she noticed Chris's matching wedding ring and she wondered if he had noticed the change too. But he probably hadn't as Chris was actually trying to act like a normal human being.

The reason that Chris was trying to act normal is because there were two children in this penthouse along with them. Now Chris was just as confused as Stephanie, and wanted to go home just as much as Stephanie, but he also realized that if this were the real world, if this was indeed his life, then he had to take care of these children because they had done nothing wrong except to wake up and be here. He couldn't just let them sit around and be ignored, they were little, the little boy was definitely not that old, maybe a few months, maybe less, and the little girl was under five, so two very small children.

He looked over at Stephanie, who was sitting at the table glumly, her chin in her hand as she stared off into space. "Stephanie, are you hungry?"

"No," she mumbled.

"You should eat something though," he prompted and she kept staring off into space. "You mentioned you had been drinking last night, you're probably starved."

"I'm fine," she told him.

"Steph--"

"I'm fine," she said, her voice tight and controlled, but still barely covering the anger that was hidden badly right below the surface. The little girl turned to look at Stephanie, confused by her behavior; her mother was usually bubbly and happy and never got really mad.

"Mommy?" Stephanie didn't answer because she wasn't that girl's mother. It wasn't that she didn't like children, it was just the fact that this was not her child and she wasn't going to pretend that it was her child, even for the sake of said child. "Mommy?"

"Mommy's kind of grumpy this morning," Chris said kindly, hoping that he and Stephanie weren't traumatizing this kid. She didn't know any better, to her they were her parents and they were supposed to love her. If anything, Chris felt like he was baby-sitting someone else's kids. He didn't have any kids, none, nada, nothing. "Do you like your breakfast?"

"Uh huh," the little girl nodded.

"Hey, do you want to play a game?" Chris asked. Stephanie turned to look at Chris, wondering why in the hell he'd be wanting to play a game at a time like this. They were stuck in some alternate reality that they weren't waking up from. Maybe they had died, but if they had died, why would they have ended up here and both of them…no, she didn't know. 

"What are you doing?" Stephanie hissed.

Chris ignored her and asked again, "So you want to play a game?"

"Okay!" the little girl said excitedly, sitting up in her chair as she prepared herself for whatever was going to be dished at her.

"Okay, can you name everyone in this room?" he asked.

"Yeah!" she exclaimed. "You're Chris and Mommy is Stephanie, and baby's name is Kolt and my name is Harper!"

"That's why I had the game," Chris stage-whispered to Stephanie, who rolled her eyes and went back to her staring, which was starting to really annoy Chris. She wasn't the only one going through this strange thing but he hadn't shut himself down. He couldn't when there were other people at stake. He turned to Harper and said, "Wow, you're really good at this game." 

"Thank you," she said politely, smiling and flashing him a smile filled with baby teeth. Chris tended to avoid staring at her for too long because for all intents and purposes he was staring at what he and Stephanie could've created together and the girl was just too darling and too sparkling, and he didn't want to get attached.

"You're welcome," he said, staring down at the baby who was still in his arms, blinking slowly as he drank from the bottle that Chris had found in the fridge. He had to guess that the other Chris and Stephanie had done that. He was thankful because he wasn't too sure how to make formula. "Hey Kolt, you done?"

"Why are you talking to _it_?" Stephanie muttered.

"Because _he_ is a human being," Chris said, trying not to involve Harper in what was going on.

"You don't know that," she said dully. "For all we know, we're stuck on an alien spaceship in one of those virtual reality things and this is all just one big hologram or something. I wouldn't be surprised by anything at this point, although I think I'd prefer the anal probe from the aliens over this."

"Oh, that's nice," Chris said snidely. "Look, can you at least help, hologram or not, you're here and there are two of them and two of us, help out a little bit."

"And why should I?" she asked him glibly. She leaned over the table. "Remember, these are not our kids, Chris, this is not our life, this is some kind of cosmic joke."

"But that doesn't mean you get to do nothing in this cosmic joke," he hissed back at her. She was about to open her mouth to speak when the doorbell rang. They both looked at each other, their eyes simultaneously getting wider.

"Oh great, another thing to worry about," Stephanie said.

"Can you at least get that?" Chris asked. "If you refuse to help here, can you at least get the door? Or is that beneath you or something?"

"I'll get the door," she told him, glaring at him as she stood up and went towards the door, wondering why nobody had buzzed up, unless it was one of her neighbors, in which case she was in big trouble because she didn't know the neighbors.

To her pleasant surprise, it was Shane at the door, holding the hand of a two-year old little boy. "Hey baby sis."

"Shane," Stephanie said expectantly, like she hadn't seen him in forever, but in this crazy world, she was just grateful for a more familiar face than Chris's. She threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly. "Shane!"

Shane hugged her with one arm, "Geez, baby sis, you're never this happy to see me, is Kolt being a pain in your ass? He's only two months old, he'll grow into a less annoying kid."

"Oh, yeah, the baby," Stephanie said, pulling away from her brother. "I'm just happy to see you, and my nephew…Declan." She was hesitant on that last part because that might even be his name in this universe, but it looked exactly like Declan.

"You hear that Dec, Auntie Steph's happy to see you," Shane told him. Declan smiled and lifted his arms up towards Stephanie, and she picked up her nephew and held him tightly. Harper looked on a little jealously. Her mother hadn't even hugged her today and usually she would. Shane walked over to the table. "Oh, hey Harp, you're not ready for preschool yet?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry, hectic morning," Chris said, standing up and looking around for somewhere he could put the baby. He spotted a carrier on the coffee table and proceeded to put the little boy into it before turning to see Harper right on his heels. "Oh hey, are you going to get ready for school?"

"What should I wear?" she asked.

"You can wear whatever you want," Chris granted. He didn't know this little girl so he felt a little apprehensive about helping her change. He just took for granted the fact that she could probably change herself. The baby, on the other hand, or Kolt as Harper had said his name was, was a different story. Chris kept telling himself that he was just their baby-sitter and nothing more.

"Yay!" the little girl said, running into her bedroom and starting to root through her drawers for something to wear. Stephanie barely even looked in her direction as she kept holding onto Declan. This was familiar, this was something that she knew and something familiar in this chaos she had been thrown into.

"How's Marissa?" Stephanie asked as she clung to Declan, "And Kenyon, how's he? Is he doing okay?"

"You know how babies are," Shane chuckled, "It's hectic around there, but we love it. How's Kolt been treating you? It's different having a boy isn't it?"

"Yeah, sure, kids are kids," she lied, feeling horrible about saying that. "So…" She desperately wanted to ask if he knew anything, if she knew where Paul was, if she knew what was going on, anything to reassure her that she wasn't really stuck here with Chris.

Harper came out in a dress and mismatched shoes, which she had refused to take off. Shane laughed as he saw her. "Rebellious look for you there, Harp. You ready to go?"

"Uh huh Uncle Shane," she said.

"Great, well, we're going to get going, and you're going to pick up the kids at 1:30, right Steph?"

"What? Me?" she asked, pointing to herself. "I can't…I don't…"

"You said you would, I have an important meeting with the website team since Dad is hating how the site is going," Shane said, rolling his eyes. "It's like, what the hell does Dad even know about the internet, not too much. But of course, Dad sees something he doesn't like and he's all ready to jump over it."

"But…" Stephanie was trying to stall. She didn't even know where this preschool was, there was no way she could pick up anybody from any preschool because she didn't know where the hell it was.

"She'll pick them up, don't worry," Chris said. "I'll be on her ass about that one, you can be sure."

"Thanks Chris, at least someone has their head on today," Shane laughed. "Come on Harper, let's go."

Harper hugged Chris's leg and said, "Bye, Daddy," before running over to Stephanie and hugging her legs too. "Bye Mommy, I love you." She ran to get her backpack as Stephanie stood there.

"Bye Harper," Chris said genially.

"Bye…Harper," Stephanie said, looking a little peaked. Shane gave her a slightly funny look as Shane escorted the kids out the door, waving goodbye before closing it. Stephanie stood there as Chris stood there, finally feeling like they were alone. Stephanie bit her lip, and spoke, "Why the hell were you acting like those were our kids?"

"What the hell did you want me to do, Stephanie, ignore them like you were?"

"Yes! Yes, we should've run the hell out of here and tried to find out the truth!" she screamed, glaring at him. "Aren't you the least bit curious as to why we're in a New York City penthouse with two children?"

"Are you fucking kidding me here!" he shouted back. "You think that you're the only goddamn person on this Earth, Stephanie. God, I never knew you to be so selfish, is this what Paul has done to you, made you only think that you're what matters!"

"Don't bring my husband into this!" she chided him angrily. "You don't know anything! I want my husband back, I don't want to be stuck here with you and whosever kids these are. These are not my kids, I repeat, _not_ my kids! I did not give birth to them, I am not raising them, for all I know, they're nothing! Nothing! I'm not taking care of these kids."

"Well I'm sorry that I have a decent bone in my body," Chris said sardonically. "You must've had yours removed. These kids are both under the age of five, Stephanie, I can't just leave them to fend for themselves, even if they aren't mine."

"They aren't! That's why…oh forget it, forget the whole fucking thing!" Stephanie said frustratingly. She wanted to pull her hair out. "What are we going to do is the real question. What are we going to do here? We have to get back home."

"You think I don't know that?" he challenged. "Look, first things first, we should find out what day it is, because that's important."

"Yes, that is important, maybe we're like, a year from now or three years from now, I don't know," she said.

Chris went over and grabbed a cell phone he saw sitting on the counter and looked through it, finding the date on it. "Okay, so it's the day after yesterday was, it's the 12th of October, so we're on the same timeline or something, this is the day after I was watching a movie with Jess."

"And I was at a cocktail party with Paul."

"So…maybe this is just a different…life, or something," Chris said.

"But why? How did we get here? I'm going to go," Stephanie said, looking around for something to take with her, a purse, some cash. "I can't stay here, I'm not married to you, and we're not together, so I'm not going to sit around here and take care of these weird kids that aren't mine."

"Stephanie, you can't leave!" Chris told her.

"And why not! You are _not_ my husband, you aren't anything to me, you are a guy that I used to work with and that's it, let's not pretend okay, I'm not in the business of pretending," she said. "I'm going to go find Paul and see what he is doing and I'm going to get my husband back, weird parallel universe or not."

"You can't, you can't screw up these people's lives, Stephanie."

"They screwed up mine! I do not have two kids, I do not live here, and I'm certainly not married to the likes of _you_," she said with venom in her voice. "This entire life is disgusting and vile. I wouldn't want to be married to you if my life depended on it. And since this is the day that I'm supposed to be living in my normal life, I've just got to believe that someone out there knows what's going on, and I'm going to see if that person is Paul, because I love him, do you get that, I love Paul, I don't love Harper and Kolt, and what kind of names are those anyways, even alternate universe me wouldn't name her kids those ridiculous names. Maybe we're not even married, maybe we're having an affair or something that's just got to stop. Maybe those aren't my kids, maybe those are your kids and only your kids."

"You saw that little girl, Stephanie," Chris said.

"Yeah, I did, and I don't remember her, so if you'll excuse me, I've got better things to do than sit around here and play house with you," she said, finding a purse and grabbing it, she headed towards the door. Chris rushed up behind her and closed the door, not letting her open it. "Get the hell out of my way, Irvine."

"Not going to happen, McMahon," he told her sternly. "Look, obviously we've been transported here for a reason, and even if there is no reason, we're here, the both of us. Stephanie, we don't know what's out there, we don't know our lives, we can't do this alone."

"Save me the pep talk, okay," Stephanie said. "There's nothing here that says I should listen to you, so see ya Irvine, have a nice alternate life."

"Stephanie, look, we don't know what's going on, and going it alone isn't going to help," Chris told her. "Stay, okay, stay here until we figure everything out."

"Why?"

"Stephanie," he pleaded, looking into her eyes. She stared into his eyes for a minute and she saw the look in them. She recognized the look in them, but she wanted to ignore it, she really wanted to ignore it. But like many things that had happened in the past, she couldn't and she sighed.

"You've got two days to figure this out before I get the hell out of here."

"You're giving me a deadline, honestly, a deadline?"

"You'll excuse me if I don't want to stay around this world for very long," she told him sarcastically. He rolled his eyes.

"Look, the only way we're going to figure this out is if we work as a team. Can you do that, Stephanie, can we work together to figure this out? It'll take you not acting like those kids have the plague."

"They're not my kids," she asserted again.

"I know, and they're not mine either, but…come on, Stephanie, even you can't be that heartless, I know that you can't be that heartless," said Chris. He reached up and brushed some of her hair away and she froze for a second before swatting his hand away.

"Stop," she said, weakly. "Fine, I'll do whatever you want me to do…just stop." Chris smiled at her and grabbed her hand, silently letting her know that they were a team now, that they were going to do this together, at least for a little while, at least until he could find Jessica and tell her everything and Stephanie could get to Paul and tell him everything. For the next few days at least, they were a team. Hopefully by then, they'd wake up from this mutual nightmare and find it all to be a silly dream, but for now, they had to work together, even if they both hated it.

"Thank you."


	5. Chapter 5

Chris closed his eyes and leaned back against the door of his closet. He had told Stephanie that he was coming in here to change, but he also needed a moment to think about what the hell was happening here. He was just as confused as Stephanie was, but he was trying so hard to hold it together, not just for her and for those kids, but for himself as well. Just last night, he had been with Jessica, his wife of the past six years and he had told her that he was going to quit wrestling for her, was going to give up the dream for her dream. He could also recall the conversation they had before going to bed.

"_Chris, honey, do you think that maybe…in the near future, you might…want kids?" Jessica asked tentatively._

"_Oh…um, wow," Chris stuttered slightly, clearing his throat. "That's…well, that's unexpected."_

"_I know, I was just thinking about it," she said quickly, which led Chris to believe that she hadn't just been thinking about it, but maybe she had been thinking about it for a while now. But if he was going to be home more often now, and not travel around with the company, he figured that kids might be nice, so he told her so._

"_You know, I could get behind that idea."_

Now, when he said that he could get behind that idea, he didn't think he would wake up in some alternate reality where he was married to Stephanie McMahon-Levesque and had two kids that he didn't ever remember having. That's not what he meant when he had said that he could get behind the idea. Now he had to figure out where the hell he was and what the hell he and Stephanie were going to do.

Part of him was glad she was here though, going through the same thing that he was going through. If she had just been his wife, and had all these memories, he would've felt so out of place, so out of his element. But Stephanie was in the same ship that he was in, and in a way, it was a comfort. Stephanie wasn't exactly the first person he would choose to go through different dimensions with, but she certainly wasn't the last. They would have to stick together until they realized what had happened to the two of them.

He rubbed his hands together a little, feeling chilled, but not because it was cold. His blood ran cold at the thought that this might be his future. He didn't want to be married to Stephanie, and he especially didn't want to have kids that he didn't remember having. He didn't want to lose those kinds of memories and never have them. Having kids was something that you wanted to remember, and getting married was something you wanted to remember.

As he changed, he wondered just how long he and Stephanie had been married in this world. He figured it at least had to be four years, what with the little girl. He knew that Stephanie would never have a kid out of wedlock, that just wasn't who she was, so it must have been at least four years ago, maybe more. He walked out of the closet and back down to the living room, and he had to admit to himself that this was a pretty swank penthouse, but if he and Stephanie were the same people, professionally, here as they were in their real lives, they could afford a place like this.

Stephanie was sitting in front of Kolt, staring at the baby, who was sucking on a pacifier that he didn't remember giving to him. Chris looked at her from the landing on the stairs and spoke, "Was he crying?"

"He definitely looked upset," Stephanie said, glancing up at him. "I found a pacifier near the sink, I figured that someone had washed them. He seems happy with it."

"Yeah, they like those," Chris said, coming down the remainder of the steps. He walked over and stood behind the couch, looking down at the baby. "He is really cute."

"He is, now that I look at him," Stephanie said, staring at a child that could've been hers, that was hers in this crazy universe. She said blandly, "Hey, look at me, I'm a mom."

"Luckily you weren't pregnant in real life or else people would wonder what the hell was going on with you," Chris said, attempting a very lame joke. Stephanie scoffed a little bit and went back to staring at Kolt. "So…we should really figure out a little more about ourselves, just to see where we stand, you know. I don't want your brother coming back over here and thinking that we don't know what the hell is going on."

"Yeah," she said. "I don't want anyone to know just yet that we're not who we say we are, not until I find Paul."

"Why don't you go look him up on the website, I'm sure it'll say what he's up to, I'm going to have a helluva time finding Jess, I mean, she's not famous, I'll have to go through her parents or something, and that's definitely going to be awkward, maybe I never even dated her, I met her…in 1998," Chris finished quietly as Stephanie nodded.

"I'm afraid to look him up," she told him dully and without pretense, but that had always been Stephanie's way, and Chris had seen that first-hand this morning with her refusal to play along into this life.

"Why?" Chris wondered.

"Because what if it says he's married or something?" Stephanie said, gazing off. "What if he has kids and he's happy and whatever? I mean…you don't…you don't know how hard it is to see someone that you love find someone else, it devastates you, and Paul is my husband, my _husband_, the guy I married…seeing the guy you…married, being married to someone else, it's not fun, Chris."

"Okay, do you want me to look it up?" he asked politely.

"No, don't!" she told him. "Please Chris, please just don't. I need to psych myself up for that. I just need to let this all sink in before I find that out, okay?"

"Okay, I get it," he told her, nodding as he came to sit down next to her. "So then we really should find out more about this other set of us," Chris said rationally. "Obviously, they have two children, Harper and Kolt, and we're married, and we live in New York, you're still who you are, so I'm assuming that I'm still who I am, working on my music and what not."

"Okay, that's a good assumption," Stephanie said, standing up. "I guess we can look around here and see if there's anything that would give us information, birth certificates, marriage license, things like that…"

Chris was glad that Stephanie had stopped wallowing in her own self-pity and decided to help him with this. He needed her help with this. "Yeah, that's a great idea. I know I saw an office down here, so that's probably where the stuff is. I'll go look in there, and you can maybe look around for their wallets or something, something around here that would help."

"Okay, I'm on it," Stephanie said, standing up and looking around for a moment before Chris got up and went into the office he saw right near the staircase. It wasn't a large office, well, it would be if it wasn't so obvious that this office was shared by two people. There were two desks, and two chairs, and a television hanging on the wall. There were books and other miscellaneous things, but when he saw the file cabinet, he knew that's where he wanted to look.

He headed straight for it, ignoring anything and everything in his path. But right when he opened the door, Stephanie called out for him, "Chris, I found something!"

Chris came back out into the living room and saw that she was holding a large white binder, or at least that's what it looked like from here. He walked closer and tried to get a better look at it, "What is that?"

"Wedding album," she said, holding it up to show him the engraving on the cover, _Chris and Stephanie's Wedding_. He froze for a moment, letting that sink in before he walked closer. "I found it over there." She gestured towards a cabinet that opened into a space in the wall for different things, and it appeared to have various DVD's and CD's and other media-related items.

"So, uh, should we look at it?" he asked, rubbing the back of his neck in nerves. Looking at pictures like that would be very weird.

"What do we have to lose?" Stephanie shrugged. "I mean, we want information, and if we want to at least fabricate memories, we should look at this, don't you think?"

"Yeah, I guess we should," he said slowly, but he really didn't want to look at these pictures. But what person would want to see pictures of a life that wasn't theirs? Wouldn't it be strange to look at himself and not have been in this picture, not for real. Stephanie plunked herself down on the couch and waited for him to sit down next to her. Kolt watched them with fascination, having no idea that these weren't his real parents, but instead were two very confused people in a very confusing world.

Stephanie opened the book as if a bat or something were going to fly out of it and hit them in the face. The first page was rather benign, but it gave them information that they needed. It told them a little something about their lives now, these forced lives they were leading:

_Mr. and Mrs. Vince McMahon _

_would cordially like to invite you_

_to the wedding of their only daughter, _

_Stephanie Marie McMahon_

_To _

_Christopher Keith Irvine_

_To take place on the thirty-first of July in the year 1999_

Stephanie scoffed, "We've…they've been married for seven years."

"Wow," Chris said, shaking his head. "I wonder why they waited so long to have kids then. You'd think…"

"Because I wouldn't have wanted them at the time, I'm sure," Stephanie said, conjecturing for her other self. "I didn't want kids back then, I was young, I wanted to be on-screen and show off my acting skills, you know, the works."

He laughed as he turned the page and he had to hold in his gasp. "Oh wow, you…I mean, she…or you, well, she looks beautiful, wow…"

Indeed, the picture staring back at Chris was indeed beautiful. Stephanie was standing in front of a garden, and she was surrounding by striking blue and purple flowers which set off the white of her dress even more. She had a light veil on her head, but it wasn't overwhelming, and her dress was rather simple, but hung on her body in just the right ways, and her white bouquet that trailed to the ground was gorgeous.

Stephanie's eyes welled up a little, "This is so strange, seeing myself, but not really seeing myself, you know. This isn't me, and it is, and God, this was my wedding."

"Not really," he said, turning the page and seeing himself, "That's not me. I don't remember this."

"Yeah, I don't either," she said, staring at the pictures as they flipped through it aimlessly. Every flip of the page brought another pricking sensation to her heart. She was looking at a wedding that included someone who was her, at least in some form. But she didn't remember this wedding or the smiles exchanged. She didn't remember shoving cake in Chris's face, or laughing it up with her parents. She didn't remember and it hurt for some reason. She closed the book abruptly, "I don't think we should look at anymore."

"Why?"

"Because it's weird," she said, trying to cover up. "I mean, that's me, and that's you, but that's not us. We didn't do any of those things. We found out we've been married for seven years, and that's what we wanted to find out. I think that we should find out how old these kids are, and where exactly Harper's preschool is so that we don't forget about her and Dec."

"Yeah, that's a good idea," he said, taking the wedding album and putting it away. "I found a file cabinet, I'll go see if there's something in there that will clue us in, at the very least it should have birth certificates, right, although, I don't know how you file one of those, Kolt looks pretty young, do you think he would have one?"

"It never hurts to check," Stephanie said. She watched Chris walk away and heard a whimpering coming from Kolt's direction. She looked at him and saw that he was on the verge of tears. She looked for Chris, but he was still out of the room. She sighed and leaned over, pausing for a moment. Holding this baby would mean he was real.

But she had promised Chris she'd make the effort and so she picked up Kolt and held him, and it was kind of a surreal feeling. This little kid was kind of hers, in a way. He had half of her genes, even if she had never really given birth to him. He cuddled into her, instinctively knowing who she was, even if she didn't know who she was. She rubbed his back and turned around in a circle to try and calm him down. She saw a laptop sitting on a table and thought back to what Chris had said about Paul.

She looked back towards the office, but still, no Chris. She walked over, not knowing exactly what was compelling her towards it, but a part of her just had to know. A part of her had to find out what had become of Paul in this strange world that she was living in. She needed to know for her own piece of mind. Maybe if Chris would come out, he would pull her away, make her concentrate on something else, anything else, but with just her and Kolt, it was impossible not to push that button to turn on the laptop.

She sat down, licking her lips a little as the thing started up. Her breaths were becoming shallower by the moment and she clung to Kolt like he was a life preserver. She could feel his soft breath against her neck, and for some reason, it brought a comfort to her. He was a baby, he didn't understand anything, and it was kind of nice to have the camaraderie because she was just as clueless as a baby right now.

When the computer started, she went immediately to the internet browser and paused before she typed in her search engine with one hand, the other still holding Kolt in her arms. She then typed in "Triple H" and watched as numerous pages were pulled up, all about him. She smiled a little at that, people were still talking about him, they still knew him, that was a good sign, but things hadn't really changed all too much in their outer lives, just within their lives.

She saw a fan-site, seemingly dedicated to him, and she clicked on it tentatively, wondering what this future held for her husband. Maybe there was still a chance, maybe he was single and she could amicably divorce Chris when he found Jessica and it wouldn't be too traumatizing for their young kids. She could have her life here, just tweaked a little bit, or even better, she could give Chris sole custody of these kids and really just have her life back, if this was indeed her life permanently. That brought a smile to her face as she eagerly clicked the link that talked about his personal life.

That's when she got punched in the stomach as the air left her body in a rush.

That's when she found out that Paul had been married to one Joanie Laurer for the past four years.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Thanks to those who have reviewed, and if you haven't, why not! Leave a pretty, shiny new review for me, please. :)

* * *

Chris walked out of office, his search for naught. He only found bills and other things that didn't give him a clue. He had found a drawer that was locked, but he couldn't find the key to the drawer, so he walked out empty-handed, wondering what he was going to tell Stephanie. She had wanted to get some more information and he felt bad that he didn't have any for her. He looked around and didn't see her anywhere. Chris started to panic a little bit when he didn't see her in the immediate vicinity.

"Steph?" he called out tentatively, looking around, but not hearing her anywhere. "Steph?"

He stepped further into the room, scared that she had taken off like she had threatened to do. Maybe she was just waiting until his guard was down and then she was going to bail on him like she had said she would. He took a deep breath to calm himself down. She wouldn't just leave, she made a promise to him, and Stephanie did not break her promises. She never had.

And she wouldn't start now.

He found her a moment later sitting out on the balcony, and he saw Kolt in her arms. He stopped for a minute to watch her, and found the scene rather sweet. He knew that it wasn't real in the sense that she had given birth to that child, but the overall picture was sweet. She was holding him close to her, like a teddy bear or something, and he wondered why she would think that she wouldn't make a great mother. She seemed to be doing a pretty good job of it right now.

It was just that moment that he noticed she seemed to have tears in her eyes. There was definitely some light glinting off of them. He was worried by this and he started to slowly make his way outside. He almost didn't want to because he didn't want to disturb the serene picture that she was making, but if she was upset then he needed to know why. He opened the sliding door, causing her to look up briefly before turning her eyes back to the spectacular view of their temporary home.

"Hey," he said quietly.

"Did you find anything useful?" she asked him.

He sighed and shook his head, though she couldn't see this because she was still turned away. "There was a drawer that was locked, stuff is probably in there. Otherwise it was just bills and things, you know, things that I would have no interest in."

"Yeah," she said softly. Chris noted that she was upset over something, but didn't want to push her lest she blow up at him again. He took a seat next to her and looked around the balcony. It was nothing special out here and he could only guess that they didn't come out here too much since they had kids. At least that's what he thought.

"So, I guess we're stuck for right now."

"He's married," she said succinctly.

Chris didn't need her to explain what she meant because he knew what she meant. "Oh."

Stephanie laughed sarcastically. "Yeah, married, he's married."

"Uh…how did you…"

"Find out?" she finished. Chris nodded as he turned to look at her. "I looked it up online. I couldn't resist. I figured that if he was still the same Paul that I knew, then he'd be able to be looked up and then there it was."

"Uh…do we know the person?" he asked tentatively, not wanting to make her more upset than she was. It had to be a blow to find out that the man you were married to was married to someone else. It had to be crazy to love someone who you knew didn't love you back in this world.

"Joanie," Stephanie said bitterly.

"Wait…Joanie as in Chyna Joanie, that Joanie?" Chris inquired.

"How many Joanies do you know Chris, of course it's that Joanie," Stephanie said. "They've been married for the past four years."

"Oh wow, I guess without…" He let his voice trail off because he was about to bring in the very scandalous past that Stephanie had been a part of in their real lives. He didn't need to bring that up to her while she was already upset.

"Say it, Chris, I don't care. But hey, we beat them to the altar," Stephanie said sardonically. "We've been married for seven years, so there never was a me and Paul. There never was any reason for us to be together in this world."

"I guess there wasn't, but that doesn't mean you don't feel the same things that you did in our real lives. It's bound to hurt," he said to her, placing his hand on top of hers. "It's okay to be hurt and sad."

"But there's nothing to be sad about in this world. He doesn't know anything, he's been with Joanie the entire time and I've been with you the entire time. I mean, you dated Jessica…well, you dated her, so at least she'd know you, but Paul doesn't know me at all."

"I'm sorry, Steph, I really don't know what to say here. I mean, yeah, you're right, but you're not you. This isn't real, or if it is, it's not our real, it's the other Chris and Stephanie's real. I really wish I could say something to make you feel better."

"There's nothing you can say that would make me feel better at this point," Stephanie responded. "But thank you for trying. I just…I hope that he's happy with her, you know. I don't want him to be unhappy. He was good to me, I want you to know that right now, he was good to me."

"Good," Chris nodded. "I'm glad to hear that."

She looked out into the city. "I don't know what we're doing here, Chris. Do we have a mission or something? Is there something that we're supposed to do? You'd think we'd have some person who knows what's going on with us show up at the front door and tell us what we have to do, what is our mission here."

"We're not in a movie," said Chris. "Although I'm starting to think we were kidnapped and now we're being experimented on or something. That would make total sense at this point, you know, anything would make total sense at this point if it explained why we were here."

"Harper's three," Stephanie said abruptly. "I looked us up too."

"Really?" he asked, wondering why he hadn't thought to do that. If they were the same people in this life than they were in the last life, then they should be able to read about themselves if they wanted to.

"Yeah, she's three and Kolt's two months old," Stephanie said, looking down at the little boy in her arms. "So I had him really recently, I'm probably still carrying baby weight and everything, but then Shane didn't seem to notice, I don't know, but that's how old they are. Oh, and an interesting note, you know how you mentioned that you were still doing your music."

"Yeah, what about it?"

"You're not, congratulations, you're the WWE champion, and you have been for the last eight months, you've been defending it well."

"Wow, so did I ever leave?"

"No, you never left, you took time off, for me and the kids, and then for your music, but never more than a few months at a time, and even then, you'd still show up occasionally, according to what I read, and apparently, everyone loves you and you aren't as universally hated like Paul is in our lives, or me for that matter," she said sullenly, thinking back to her past.

"Well, I'm not…never-mind."

"No, what were you going to say?" Stephanie asked, looking over at him. "What's it matter now anyways? This is my life now, and I just need to accept it, right? I should just go with the flow. Paul has never been my husband, and I've never even been with him. I've been with you for the past seven years and we have two kids. This is my life now, Chris, this is it for me."

"Stephanie, we don't even know why we're here, let's not get too complacent."

"Well at least you might be able to find Jessica," Stephanie said. "You might still have your future, while I'm here, and I'm stuck with these kids that aren't mine and a husband who doesn't know I'm his wife. I just…I want to wake up," she finished softly.

"I want to wake up too," he said, scooting his chair closer to her. "Stephanie, you're not alone, I'm not going to leave you, even if Jessica is single. I told you that we were a team, and we're a team okay, you don't leave a team member behind."

"You really won't leave me?" Stephanie asked pitifully, her eyes shining with unshed tears. Chris shook his head and raised his hand to touch her cheek. She leaned into his touch a little bit, knowing that he was the only person in this strange world to know who she really was. She had to cling to him because he was her only link to a life that nobody here remembered.

"I'm not going to leave you, Stephanie, I promise." Kolt started crying and Stephanie brought him up to her shoulder and rubbed his back gently, trying to get him to calm down. He snuggled into her body a little bit more, obviously convinced that she was his mother, and why not, she was still Stephanie.

"You're a natural with him," Chris said wistfully.

She scoffed and snorted a little. "You've got to be kidding me. I'm a natural because I hold him and pat him on the back, any idiot knows to do that, Chris."

"No, I don't think it's that, you just look very natural with him in your arms, it's kind of sweet. He kind of looks like you too. Definitely around the mouth."

"Chris, stop…"

"What else am I going to say?" he shrugged. He was going to say more, but the door buzzed and Chris got up and went over to the intercom. "Hello?"

"Hello Chris, it's Linda."

"Oh…uh, hey Linda, let me buzz you up," Chris said as he pushed the button. Stephanie walked into the room and she looked over at him questioningly. "It's your mom."

"My mom," Stephanie said, brightening a little bit. Her mother could make things better for her, she just knew that she could. Stephanie put the baby into his carrier and walked over to the door, her smile widening as she got closer and closer. She hugged Chris tightly, surprising him a little bit. Chris hugged her back, closing his eyes and letting himself feel her pressed against him. He let go a moment later and she pulled back from him, her face luminescent with a smile, the first real one he had seen today. Even Shane's appearance hadn't gotten to her like this.

"You're excited," he told her.

"It's my mom, maybe my mom knows, I mean, she's so smart, and maybe…can we tell her?"

"No!" Chris said quickly. "Steph, we can't tell anyone, they'd think we were crazy. We have to hold off on that for a while, okay? Then we can tell someone, someone we both can trust."

"You don't trust my mom?" she asked angrily.

"No, I trust your mom, I just…we don't want people to think we're crazy so we have to go along with this," he said, just as there was a knock on the door. He opened it to see Linda, the same Linda on the other side. "Hey Linda."

"Hello Chris," she said genially and turned to Stephanie. "I wanted to surprise you, sweetie. I know it's your day off and I thought that we could have lunch near Harper and Declan's preschool and then walk over and pick them up."

Stephanie nodded, "I'd love that, I would absolutely love that."

"Great," Linda said. "You're welcome to join us, Chris."

"I'll let you two ladies talk," Chris said, glancing at Stephanie. "It'll be like a father-son sort of day over here."

"Thanks for watching him," Stephanie said, and she really was thanking him. Having lunch with her mother would bring her a sense of normalcy that she was severely missing right now. Maybe for a little while she would be able to pretend that this world wasn't real. She gave Chris a lingering look before grabbing what had to be her purse and following her mother out the door.

Chris stared after her as the door closed, turning back to the baby in front of him. He went over and sat across from him, taking a quiet moment to actually study the little boy. It was ironic that the night before he had been discussing kids with his wife and now he had two kids of his own. Kolt did look like Stephanie and a little like himself. He reached out and touched him again, just to make sure he was real.

Kolt was fast falling asleep, like most two month olds do and Chris found himself glancing towards the computer Stephanie had been on, which was still humming. He stood up and walked over and ran the mouse a couple of times to open it up. He saw that the site she had been looking at was about him, and he found himself fascinated. Everything up until eight years ago was exactly the same, and that's the point when everything changed.

There was no mention of Jessica, no mention of him retiring, nothing that he remembered from just yesterday. There were more pictures on the site, pictures of him and Stephanie at their wedding, recent pictures of him with his kids after a match. It was like he was staring into his own face, but he had developed amnesia over the past twenty-four hours. Maybe this was amnesia or something, that could be it. But then why would Stephanie have it too? That part didn't make sense.

He desperately wanted to look up Jessica, but he had no idea how to go about doing so, so he sat there, staring at a picture of himself. He bore a hole through it, wondering why this Chris had all of this, and in his own life, it was much different. This Chris had really settled down while not giving up on the dream, on his wrestling. He was the WWE champion, he had won it off of John Cena eight months ago and had been defending it valiantly ever since, and apparently some match he had against Edge had been a total Match of the Year. In his regular life, he was struggling with the decision to give up wrestling for Jessica, but Stephanie would never have made him give that up. He hadn't given that up, he and Stephanie were obviously on the road with their children, and they seemed happy, all reports made it out that they were very much in love. The parallels between his regular life and his new life were a little overwhelming right now, but he had to stay strong and figure everything out. He went back and read the biography again, one more time, until that point eight years ago, until that moment when everything changed.

July 25, 1998.


	7. Chapter 7

"Mommy, you mad at me?"

Stephanie looked down to the little girl holding her hand. They had just bid adieu to Linda and Declan, who Linda would drop off with Shane, and were on the elevator going up to their penthouse. Stephanie pursed her lips. She had tried to be friendlier around this little girl when she had picked her up, even letting her hug her. It was strange to be hugged by your child who wasn't really your child. She was definitely making an effort.

Chris was right. These kids hadn't done anything. They weren't doing anything wrong, and they weren't the problem. They were just little kids who wanted to be around the two people who had always been around them. It was Stephanie and Chris's duty to make sure that these kids were alright. Stephanie looked at it as an assignment. She liked assignments and she liked to be organized. She could look at this as another assignment, a very important assignment.

"Why do you think I'm mad at you?" Stephanie asked.

"Don't know," Harper shrugged, "I got no hug when I got up."

"Well, I'm sorry, I was just very tired this morning," Stephanie said, kneeling down. "How about you give me that hug now and it'll count for this morning?"

"Okay!" the little girl said brightly and hugged Stephanie tightly. Stephanie hugged her back as the doors opened. Stephanie closed her eyes, and for a moment, things seemed right, or at the very least, they seemed okay. She didn't have children, not really, but she found herself relishing in the feeling of this little girl, who so unconditionally loved her, without reproach and without boundaries. She felt like she had never had that in her life. She knew her parents loved her, they did, and she knew that Paul loved her, or at least he said he did, but they knew her. They knew her faults and they knew her temper, and they had seen first-hand the bad things that she was capable of.

Yet, here was this little girl who loved her and she had no reason to think she was mean or bad. Stephanie wondered if her other self appreciated that. But then again, if she had been with Chris for the past seven years, then she might not have done the same things. She knew for sure that she had never broken up Paul and Joanie, so that was erased from her record. Maybe she was such a humanitarian in this life that nobody hated her at all. That would be something that would make her want to stay here.

"You give the best hugs," Stephanie told her honestly, simply because there was such fierce love behind that hug.

"You too, Mommy," Harper told her as Stephanie stood up. Then it was like she had opened the flood-gates. Now that Harper had no reason to think that Stephanie was mad at her, she felt more at ease and started to talk about her day.

"Today in preschool, Marty pulled on Tanya's hair, it wasn't nice, because that's not nice, right Mommy?"

"Yeah, it's not nice when you pull on someone's hair," Stephanie said.

"We had salad for lunch, it was yummy, and I had carrots in it, then we took a nap."

"Did you sleep well?" Stephanie asked.

"Uh huh," she nodded, "Then we painted, and I made a pretty picture and Miss Allison put it up on the wall and she said that you could come see it."

"Sounds fascinating," Stephanie said as they reached their floor, which she had noted when they had left, but it wasn't too hard to find when you were on the top floor. She was just glad she remembered what building it was.

They walked out of the elevator and up to their door, where Stephanie opened it up, letting Harper bound inside. When she walked in herself, her breath caught a little bit as she watched Harper run up to Chris, who had his back to her, and squeeze her arms around his legs. He turned slightly to look at her and she saw Kolt in his arms, cuddled into his side. She bit her lip as she saw what this life had to be like for that other Stephanie.

"Hey," she choked out as she walked into the penthouse. She looked around for a place to put her purse and finally just threw it on the couch.

"Hey, how was your lunch?" Chris asked.

"It was good," Stephanie said with a smile, hoping that he saw that it was genuine and she was really making an effort. For some reason, she wanted to make Chris proud of her, that she was trying her best. After what he had said this morning, after her wanting to leave, she wanted to make sure he knew that as much as he wasn't abandoning her, she wasn't going to abandon him either.

"Good, I'm glad, uh…Kolt and I were just hanging around, doing nothing," Chris said, trying to sound as normal as possible while Harper was in the room and clinging to his leg. "Hey Princess, how was preschool?"

"Good!" she exclaimed. "Can I go play in my room?"

"Sure," he told her and he watched as she scampered off to her room.

"Princess?" Stephanie asked curiously.

"I was reading some online stuff, and they kept mentioning Chris Jericho and his little Princess," Chris said. "I figured that if that's what they call her, maybe that's what I call her too."

"They mention our…the kids," Stephanie said. "What were you looking at?"

"Official site, fan sites, whatever," he told her. He didn't want to tell her that he had actually been searching for anything pertaining to Jessica. It might hurt her feelings to hear about that, and the last thing that Chris wanted to do was hurt Stephanie's feelings. He still didn't know how much it would take to push her over the edge, and he felt like he was treading a very thin line here, and he had to be careful.

Of course, Stephanie shattered that thinking when she said the next line, "Did you find out anything about Jessica?"

"Oh…uh, no, nothing mentions her, I'm starting to think I never dated her in this life," Chris said with a forced laugh. Stephanie looked at him sympathetically. "But you know, maybe that's better, maybe not seeing her is better, I can only imagine how you feel seeing Paul and all of that."

Stephanie turned away a moment and then turned back to Chris. "If this is the life I'm forced to lead from now on, I'm going to make the best of it. Everything that happened this morning, I'm just going to purge it from my memory. I'm here, Chris, and if this it for the long haul, if it's us for the long haul, I've got to come to grips with that."

"If we never find out a way to get back, Steph, we'll figure something out. We can get divorced, we can find other people. We'll make do, but I'm confident that we'll eventually get home."

"Yeah, I'm glad one of us is," she told him, and then she walked over and hugged him. "Thank you for being so great during this. You didn't deserve me yelling at you this morning."

Chris was surprised that she had so readily apologized for this morning. The Stephanie that he knew would never apologize. She'd rather go down fighting than apologize for something. Maybe this new world had humbled her. He didn't know anything anymore, only that she was his only lifeline to a world that had disappeared around him. He hugged her back with his free hand, letting her know that he was there for her.

She pulled away and went to say something when someone's cell phone rang. Stephanie looked around for the offending piece of technology and realized it was coming from her own purse. She laughed softly thinking that maybe she should examine the contents of the purse. She went over and rooted through it, finding it and seeing it was her father.

"Daddy!" she answered happily.

"Stephanie, that was quite the hello," Vince laughed and she had to smile at that.

"What can I do for you, Daddy?"

"Well, it seems that there's been a bit of a mix-up at SmackDown, so I'm going to have to fly there immediately, thankfully it's not a long flight, but I've got a meeting with Paul today, and I can't make it, I know this is short notice, but do you think you could take my meeting at four o'clock today?" 

Stephanie's heart skipped a beat at hearing Paul's name. It had to be her Paul, either that or Paul Heyman, which would be better at this point and she didn't even like Paul Heyman. The thought of seeing Paul, seeing him in front of her but not being able to be with him, it seemed like a little form of torture. Like the gods had not only messed with her entire life, they were forcing her to see other lives of those she loved. But then, in her real life she was forced to do that too. She glanced at Chris, and wondered what he would think of this. But in the end, it was business, and Stephanie was the consummate professional.

"Of course, Daddy, I'd be glad to meet with him," she said with forced enthusiasm. "What is this in regards to?"

"It's in regards to his recent storyline with Adam, I wanted to discuss what he thinks should happen at the next Pay-Per-View, I like to get the wrestler's input, you know that," at this, Stephanie's eyes narrowed a little. Her father didn't really ever seem to care about his wrestler's feelings unless they were high up on the totem pole, but then, Paul was high up on the totem pole, so maybe this did make sense. "I wanted to maybe see if he wanted to get the Intercontinental Title, I know that sometimes he feels like it's below him, but I think it would add something to the feud."

"Oh, okay Daddy, so you just want me to get his ideas then."

"Yeah, and it makes sense since you are the head of the creative team. You should have your input too."

"Yes, okay, I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Thank you Stephanie," Vince said happily.

Stephanie hung up the phone and looked to a curious Chris. "My dad wants me to take a meeting for him at Titan, I've got to go now, I don't know if the traffic will be bad. I don't even know if I have a car."

Chris laughed, "I think we do, I saw keys hanging over there," he told her, pointing to a key rack, which did have car keys on it. "I think there's a garage below the building, or at least that's what I assume, I've never lived in New York before, well, I did, briefly, but I was a newborn, so you know, I didn't know too much. Who's the meeting with?"

"Paul," Stephanie said with a sigh and she tried to read Chris's face, but he wasn't giving up any information.

"Oh, that's going…do you want me to come with you?"

"The kids…"

"The kids can come too, they'll probably want to go on a drive, kids like to go on drives, right?" Stephanie shrugged because she had no previous kid experience. Chris had only ever interacted with his nieces and nephews, so he wasn't that much better-off. "Well, I know that babies fall asleep in cars. If you want me to come with you…for moral support, I can." 

"I don't know," she said. "Wouldn't it seem weird?"

"Don't they have like, stuff to do at Titan? I've been there many times, but I don't know the nuances or anything."

"There's things to do," she told him. "If you want to come with…"

"If you want me to come with you, I absolutely will, you just have to say the word, that's it, and I'm there."

"Um…yeah, I can probably do this by myself, do you think that would be okay with you?" Stephanie asked, because if it wasn't okay with him, then she would absolutely not go alone. She would take him and the kids with her.

"No, if you feel like it's something you need to do alone, then I'm all for that."

She nodded, and he could see clearly that she was nervous. He wanted to reach out to her, but he didn't think that she would be so receptive to his olive branch. Stephanie was a strong person, he knew this, and she could handle an obstacle like this one. She could handle anything.

"Stephanie, just remember, this isn't your life. This isn't our lives. In our life, you're with Paul and you have him. This world, it may seem real, and maybe it _is_ real, but it's not _our_ real."

"You're right," she whispered, grabbing her purse and giving him one last glance. "I'll be back."

She wanted him to believe that too.

She drove the entire way to Stamford in silence. Not a word was uttered to herself, no music, the only sound the traffic around her and the humming of her own vehicle. She wasn't thinking beyond staying in between the lanes of the highway and the streets. Thinking would do her no good as there was nothing that made sense to her. She was going to see her husband, well, what would've been her husband, in this world, she had…she was going to see Paul and she had to be strong and brace herself for it.

When she got to Titan, there was still about a half an hour before Paul was scheduled to arrive so she went up to her office. It was still the same, for the most part. In her own life, she kept no pictures on her desk, but there was certainly enough pictures on there now. She sat down and looked at them, pictures of Harper as a baby, Kolt after he was just born, her and Chris, and then there was one of her pregnant, with which child, she didn't know. She picked it up and stared at it, knowing she had never been pregnant.

"God, I was huge," Stephanie said to herself, a little in disgust, a little in awe. She was looking at herself pregnant with a child she had never had. She placed her hand on her own abdomen and stared at the picture. "Well, I guess if I have to have kids, the best way to go is to transport myself to another world."

"Knock knock."

Paul didn't look any different.

Somehow that was something she relished in. She didn't want this world to look different, even though it did, and knowing that Paul looked the same took away a little of the bitter edge this world had. She grinned widely, just knowing she was around him brought a sense of normalcy to this world. She was glad he was here, and she had the urge to go over and hug him, let her body press against his and let this strange journey end.

Only she couldn't because this wasn't her Paul.

"Hello Paul," said Stephanie, her voice a little awed at seeing him. He laughed and sat down across from her as she hastily set the picture frame down. Hunter leaned forward and grabbed the picture to glance at it briefly.

"Yeah, it's such a difference," Paul said, glancing at her. "I haven't seen you since you had Kolt, you look great." 

"Oh…thanks," she said, blushing a little bit at his compliment. He was noticing her, he was really noticing her. "You didn't have to say that."

"It's only the truth," he said, placing the picture down on her desk. "So how is the little rug-rat?"

"Good, looks uh…looks like Daddy," Stephanie said, falling into her lie rather easily.

"Yeah, I know, I've had to hear Chris go on and on about him at the shows. It's good that he's happy, but man, you don't have to be that happy," Paul chuckled. "I'm almost wishing he had gone on as long a maternity leave as you did, but he couldn't since he's the defending champ and all." 

"Does that bother you?" she asked, knowing that her Paul would hate it and want the belt immediately and would make her pull every string she had to make sure that the belt was going to be around his waist. He was ultra-competitive like that, not because he wanted to use her, or so she had convinced herself.

"Not really," he shrugged, "You know, with me and Joanie trying to settle down now, it's good, I'm glad."

She swallowed the lump in her throat, but it could've been bile. "Yeah, family, settling…good, family settling…"

"Are you okay?" Paul asked, eyeing her strangely. She was behaving kind of oddly at the moment. Her stuttering had tipped her off to that.

"No, I'm just…trying to get back in the swing of things, I'm going back to Raw on Monday, you know, Raw, since I had Kolt and couldn't come back," she said, trying to quickly cover her tracks. "I'm just excited. Good to be back."

"Yeah, it's good to have you back," Paul said with a smile, one that had been directed at her many times before.

"So you and Joanie are going to be settling down, that's…nice," she told him, forcing the words out like they were stuck in her throat. This wasn't her life, this wasn't her life, she repeated inside her brain. She could live with this odd alternate reality for now. She remembered what Chris had told her. This may be their lives, but it wasn't their real lives. Paul wasn't really married to Joanie, he was married to her.

"Yeah, with your dad giving her time off, we're actually going to try to start a family," he said, and he sounded so enthusiastic and so for that idea. She wondered if her Paul felt the same way. She never discussed kids because she wasn't ready for them, but maybe her Paul was. Maybe she should bring that up when she went back home…her real home.

"Wow, it's great having a family," she said, ignoring the twinge in her stomach. She was playing a part because this wasn't her world. It wasn't her world at all. "I don't know what I'd do without Harper and Kolt."

"Yeah, you're lucky, I just hope to be as lucky too."

"Yeah, oh…man, the storylines," she said. "I was supposed to get your input, and if you wanted to win the IC Title."

"Whatever you see fit," Paul told her. "I trust you."

"Oh."

"Yeah, so you know, whatever you want me to do with Adam, I'll do it, you just tell me the word. You're the boss, right?"

"Right," she echoed. She saw something out of the corner of her eye and saw Joanie standing in the doorway. Stephanie bit her lip and remembered who she was, she was not someone who was jealous of Joanie Laurer. She was Stephanie McMahon, or was she Stephanie Irvine, she didn't even know. But she had to put her best foot forward here, and curb the feeling of wanting to slug Joanie right in the mouth. She then felt a bit of superiority knowing that in her real life, she had run Joanie out of town. She had been no match for Stephanie and that made her happy, very happy. "Joanie…so nice to see you."

"Steph, it's great to see you," Joanie said happily. "How's Kolt?"

"He's a doll," she said in a sickly sweet voice that was dripping with sugar and insincerity. "He's the cutest little boy you could ever meet, and he's all mine." She ended that with a little vindictive edge as she glanced over at Paul possessively. She just wanted to let this Joanie know that she was on notice. The second she made a mistake, Stephanie would be there to comfort her husband. She wouldn't leave Chris for now, but he had said that there could be a divorce in the future and she would exercise that right the second that Joanie screwed up. Knowing Joanie, she was going to screw up.

And Stephanie would swoop right in.


	8. Chapter 8

How does one get used to living a life that isn't theirs?

Stephanie and Chris were managing. Or at least, they had been managing for the day. They had managed to survive the day. But the day blended in to night, and Stephanie, through the help of Mapquest, got back to her penthouse. She had been hoping that Paul would stay for a while, maybe talk to her, just so she could see him, but he didn't, having to leave with his "wife," or at least his wife in this universe. It was a painful thing to see someone you cared about leaving with someone that wasn't you.

She walked reluctantly back into the penthouse, kind of disappointed that this was her life now. She was with a man that she didn't marry, with kids that she didn't give birth to, except…she had. If she were to go to a hospital and have her DNA taken and then Harper and Kolt's DNA taken, they would prove these were her kids, but these weren't her kids. But for now, this was her family, and this was her life and she had to deal with it.

She got her first taste of it when she heard Kolt's screaming reverberating across the apartment. She cringed at the high-pitched tone and tried to locate just where it was coming from. She set her things down by the door and walked further into the large space they called a home. She saw Harper sitting on the couch with her hand covering her ears. She walked over and kneeled next to the little girl and uncovered her ears.

"Harper, how long has Kolt been crying?" she asked.

"Forever," Harper said with wide eyes. "He's been crying since you left, Mommy."

"Oh," Stephanie said to herself. She stood back up and then looked at Harper again, "Where's Daddy?"

"In Kolt's room," Harper answered. Stephanie vaguely knew where that was, since she had passed by it, but hadn't actually been in there. She wandered up the stairs and down the short hallway to the left to find a room with Chris walking back and forth.

"Hey," Stephanie said tentatively as she looked at Kolt's red face leaning on Chris's shoulder, crying his little eyes out.

"Oh thank God, you're here," Chris said, sounding relieved. "I've been trying to get him to calm down for the past two hours, I think the longest he's gone without crying is five minutes. He won't stop. I don't…I don't know how to make him stop. I'm at a loss here, Stephanie, I don't know how to deal with his."

"It's okay," Stephanie said, hoping that she sounded confident. She took Kolt from Chris's arms, and she told him, "Let me try, okay?"

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," Chris said, grabbing onto her shoulder. "I was actually going to make dinner, but he was crying so much that I couldn't do that. So I guess we can order out or something, I'll go out and find food, forage."

She laughed even as she winced at the screams in her ear. "That sounds good…did you try feeding him?"

"Fed him, changed him, did everything I could possibly do, and he still won't shut up. I'm kind of scared that there's something wrong with him. How do you know if there's something wrong with a baby? Do you think that we should find this kid's doctor and call him?"

"No, just, go get food, it'll be okay," Stephanie said.

"Are you sure?" he asked, not wanting to leave her here while she was still up in the air about everything. It wasn't that he didn't trust Stephanie, he did, but he just didn't know how she would respond to the strangest situation in the world.

"I'm sure," she insisted. "Chris, come one, we've got a three-year-old in the house, we should get her something to eat. That's the responsible thing to do." Chris stared at her agape for a moment, and Stephanie gave him a look. "Yes, I can act like an adult, Chris. That's what I am. Regardless of the world that I'm in, I need to act like it."

Chris was impressed with the way she was acting now. She was taking charge, and maybe that had something to do with seeing Paul earlier. Maybe just seeing him was enough to ease her troubled mind. Maybe it was enough for her to live off of right now, and for that, he was grateful that Paul existed in this timeline, in any timeline. Chris had an intense hatred of the man buried deep down inside him, and he knew that Paul could care less about him as well, but both men had entirely different reasons for their own hatred, and yet, it all really factored down to one common denominator. Usually Chris took the high road when it came to Paul, never letting the other man know how much hate was festering in his stomach like a black ball of evil.

However, if being around Paul could transform Stephanie's attitude, then he had to be grateful for the man. He stood in the doorway for a moment as Stephanie turned her attention away from him and turned it to the baby in her arms. Kolt didn't really look like either one of them, not yet anyways. He was still a small baby so his features hadn't had time to even themselves out yet, to show which parent he would look like. Chris sighed as he thought about a kid, _his_ kid, but maybe the reason for the little boy's tears was the fact that he knew that he wasn't really his father. Maybe he sensed something in the way that he was held that told him that this wasn't his daddy. Maybe…

For now, he'd just go get dinner.

Stephanie looked down at the little boy in her arms. She rubbed his head a little bit, soothingly, hoping that would get the baby to quiet down. He kept wailing though and she went over to a rocking chair in the corner of the room. She wondered curiously if this was where the other Stephanie would sit and rock her baby to sleep. But then she thought about it and knew that the other Stephanie would never do that. She probably just sat here when the pacing got to be too much. She rocked herself back and forth gently as she cradled Kolt in her arms.

"Hey there," she said softly. "You know, I'm not your mommy. Maybe you know that, maybe you can sense it. I think your sister was sensing it earlier." Stephanie sighed and grabbed his tiny hand, holding it between her fingers. "I want to cry too, Kolt. My entire world, everything that I thought I knew, it's been thrown upside down and through the ringer. I don't know what's going on or why I'm here, but we both have to be strong. I miss my life, and I miss the people in my life, and I bet that you miss your real mommy. I'm sure that she would know what she was doing, huh? Well, if you can hold on for a little while, I bet that your mommy comes back, okay?"

Stephanie looked down to find that Kolt was cooing at her and gripping her finger tightly. She smiled down at him, proud that she had been able to calm him down. Maybe she wasn't so bad at this kind of stuff. Or maybe Kolt somehow knew that she was trying her hardest here. She wasn't going to let these two kids fall by the wayside. They were her responsibility for the time-being and Stephanie had to take that seriously.

"He's quiet," Chris said, amazed as he looked in on them.

"I know," she said, looking up at him. "I just appealed to his good side and he calmed down."

"Thank you."

"It's a pleasure," she said. "I thought you were out foraging for food."

"Well, I found a Pizza menu in the drawer and figured that they order pizza sometimes, and they deliver so we'll be having some pizza. I asked Harper what she liked, so you know, she'll eat and stuff. Did you want me to heat up a bottle for him?"

"Yeah, that'd be great, I think he's getting sleepy right now," Stephanie said, looking down at the little boy who did look a little tired. Chris nodded and walked away again as she sat there, cradling him and rocking away in the chair. It was comforting, just sitting there, not having to think about anything but rocking back and forth. She could almost fall asleep here. She closed her eyes for a moment, but was awoken a moment later when she felt Chris take Kolt from her arms.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"You were about to fall asleep," Chris told her. "Why don't you go out in the living room and wait for the pizza, and I'll feed him and get him to bed?"

"Okay, thanks," Stephanie said, falling into this routine easily. Maybe too easily; something like this shouldn't be easy. She was in a world she didn't understand, and yet here she was, playing house with Chris like this was their life. She should be freaking out, running around naked on the streets of New York, or telling everyone that she had transported from an alternate universe. But she didn't have the energy to do those things, and she needed to take care of these kids so she was going to fall into that routine because she had no other choice. She had to be the mother that these kids were accustomed to because she didn't want to scare the wits out of them. She wanted them to know that they were loved. Stephanie had the wherewithal to at least do that.

After dinner, Stephanie decided that because Chris had put Kolt to bed, she would put Harper to bed. The little girl was rather cooperative in the getting-to-bed process. Stephanie helped her into her pajamas and then sat on the edge of Harper's bed and looked down to the little girl who bore such a resemblance to her. Harper settled herself in and for the first time, Stephanie realized something, but she kept it to herself for the moment.

"Mommy, will you read me a story before I go sleep?" Harper asked. Stephanie smiled down at her. It figured that a child of hers would love to read. Whenever she felt lonely when her parents were away on business or what not, she would grab a book and read under the covers. It was probably the reason why she needed reading glasses now, but back then, books were a way to escape, not from who she was, but just…they were a way for her to become a different person, and sometimes, Stephanie wanted to be different. Perhaps that's why she had been transported here. Maybe she was someone different now, maybe she was the same, maybe she was in someone's book, she didn't know.

"What book?" Stephanie asked.

"Giving Tree!" Harper exclaimed.

Stephanie, at first, didn't know what book she was talking about so she went to Harper's bookshelf, and started skimming the book titles until she came across The Giving Tree. She picked it out of the shelf and Harper clapped as Stephanie settled herself down next to the small child. Harper snuggled up into Stephanie's side, and she paused, not expecting to feel the closeness like this. She instinctively found herself smiling down at Harper's head and before she knew it, she was running her fingers through her brown curls. The curls had to have come from Chris, she mused, because her hair was bone straight if she didn't curl it every morning.

She caught herself before her mind started thinking crazy things. It was scary how quickly a child could integrate themselves into your mind. And maybe even integrate their way into your heart. It was just the innocence and full trust of a child that caught you by surprise. It reminded her of a quote she had read once, from Picasso or some artist or something, that said every child is an artist and the hard part is staying an artist when they grow up. It was hard not to feel something for someone who loved you so deeply, even if they weren't really yours. It was so difficult to remain impassive when a little girl who believed nothing else but that you were her mommy, sat here and loved you unconditionally, something she hadn't felt since she was a little girl herself, before the harsh weight of the world had descended upon her.

"Mommy, the story," Harper insisted.

"Sorry, sorry," Stephanie apologized quickly as she opened the book to the first page, "Once there was a tree…and she loved a little boy."

Chris took the bottle away from Kolt's mouth. The little kid could eat, Chris would give him that. He had woken up from his slumber and seemed to be hungry, again, but he didn't know much about two-month-olds, or really, kids in general. He knew the basic stuff, but taking care of them day in and day out, not something he had ever done. He stared down at the kid, who had finally shut up earlier.

"So you were crying a lot earlier, I get the feeling that you don't like me. You like her though, right? I should've figured, she's got a way with the men. She's charming and pretty, and she knows how to handle every situation. I don't blame you for liking her more than you like me, I just wish you had spared my eardrums. She's…wonderful in your world, isn't she? She's probably awesome, right? Pretty and charming still, but I bet she's toned it down, huh? She's not a super bitch or anything, not willing to cut you down to size because she feels like it. I bet she loves you a whole lot. I bet your daddy loves you a whole lot too. He's probably the coolest guy you know, right?" Chris looked down to see Kolt had fallen back to sleep. "Yeah, so cool he makes you fall asleep."

Chris put the little boy back in his crib and turned on the mobile, which started to play a soft, lulling tune. He turned off the light and closed the door partially so they could still hear him if need be. He went a couple doors down to where Stephanie was sitting on the bed with Harper, reading something together. He leaned in the doorway, unseen to both of them.

"Come, boy, sit down, sit down and rest…And the boy did…And the tree was happy…The End," Stephanie said, closing the book.

"Good story, Mommy," Harper said sleepily, raising her arms for a hug. Stephanie leaned down and gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Harper looked around Stephanie to see Chris and she smiled, "Daddy, hug?"

"Sure," Chris said, coming over and giving her a hug and a kiss before she settled herself into the bed. Chris and Stephanie said their goodnights before they left the little girl to her sweet dreams.

They walked into their bedroom and simultaneously collapsed on the bed together, laughing as their heads hit mattress. They stayed quiet for a few minutes, relishing in the quiet after the day they had just had. Stephanie snuck a look over at Chris, and he had his eyes closed and his hands clasped underneath his head, like he was going to go star-gazing or something. She turned on her side and he opened his left eye to see what she was doing.

"We survived," she told him.

"What a weird, weird day, huh?" he said sarcastically. She nodded pitifully. "But we made it through everything, together, like I said we would."

"You did say that."

"Thank you for staying around. I don't think I could've handled them both together without you. So just…thanks."

"Thanks for knocking the sense into me to stay," she told him. "It's like a dream, huh?"

"What? This whole thing?"

"Yeah."

"A very strange and vivid dream, makes me wonder if we're in a coma in our other lives and suddenly decided to dream the same thing."

"We're not twins," Stephanie joked as she lay there. "Do you think we'll ever get back?"

"I don't know."

"You know what makes this even sadder?" she told him, staring above him and all the pictures that were adorning the room.

"What?"

"If we're here, where do you think that the other Chris and Stephanie are? What if they're in our world? What if they're living our lives? That's going to be a bigger change for them, finding themselves married to completely different people, and they're going to miss their kids."

"Oh man," Chris said, the thought sobering him up greatly. "God, they're without their kids. They don't even know if their kids are okay!"

"I know," Stephanie said. "I can't imagine waking up and finding out that your kids don't exist. That's harder than this, and I think when I think that, it makes this easier. Because somewhere, I don't know where, but somewhere, the other part of me, the other me, she's missing her kids, and she's hoping that someone is taking care of them, and I can't let her down."

"Maybe we'll wake up tomorrow and we'll be in our beds, and this will have never existed. Maybe this is a one day deal, or maybe this isn't real."

"And yet we're both experiencing it?"

Chris looked up at the ceiling and Stephanie wanted him to answer, but he didn't. Not at first, not at second, and as the minutes ticked by, she knew he wasn't going to answer. She figured as much. She turned again, laying on her stomach, grabbing a pillow as she rested her head, staring at the deep thinking Chris. She just watched him, knowing what he was thinking. But she didn't push him to talk or anything. She just watched him, wondering if he knew that he could talk to her.

"Did seeing Paul help?"

"Huh?" she asked, not expecting him to say that.

"Did seeing Paul help you? Did it help you to…cope?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Because I'm wondering if I find Jess, should I see her? Would it help, you know? Would it help to see her, just to know she's okay, that she's happy in this life," he said. Stephanie sighed and didn't look at Chris.

"She was there. I wanted to talk to him, and she was there…his…wife. She looked happy, he looked happy, and I'm sitting there wondering what he would think he knew that I was his wife," Stephanie explained. She scoffed sarcastically. "It hurt…I won't lie. It felt weird…but if in your own life, you face things you didn't want to face, this is nothing."

"It's not _nothing_," Chris said. "You're married to him."

"Not here," she said. "Here, we never even dated. It's hard to begrudge a person who never loved you in the first place. I married you in 1999, and there was no Paul and me, we worked together, this me loved you…she _loved_ you. Do you get what I mean?"

"Yeah, and this Chris married you, so he loved you too," Chris told her. She nodded. "You know, things can still work out for you with Paul. Joanie and he could end up getting divorced, and then you and him can get together, and if we're stuck here, we can make things work."

"And if you find Jessica single?"

"I don't know," he replied honestly. "I'm hoping we wake up in our own lives tomorrow."

"I'll hope that too," she told him. "Seven years…"

"What about it?"

"It's a long time, it's more than half a decade," she told him. "Seven years, I just…it's hard to believe they've been married for seven years. They got engaged in 1998, married in early 1999. It was a rather short engagement. Probably nice."

"Don't start getting all poetic on me, McMahon," Chris joked.

"I'm not, I'm just thinking is all," she said, closing her eyes as she laid her head there, hoping that when she opened them again, her world would be restored. She hoped that wherever the other Chris and Steph were, they knew their kids were taken care of. She hoped that Paul knew she loved him.

"Hey Steph, what things in your life have you faced that you didn't want to?" Chris asked. When he received no reply he turned to his left and looked down. He smiled a little and was caught by her sleeping form. He closed his own eyes, wondering what the next day would bring.

Hoping it would bring them home.


	9. Chapter 9

It started off distant at first.

Like a train you hear coming but cannot yet see. She heard the first keening whistle that would alert her, tell her that something needed to be done. It was an unconscious act, this act of hearing, for her brain, still in its sleeping state, had yet to register just what she was hearing. But it was getting clearer and clearer until she heard the train coming upon her and she opened her eyes with a quick jolt, momentarily wondering if she had ever been asleep or if the time had passed by so quickly with her staring at the ceiling.

Like fog lifting from San Francisco, Stephanie realized that it was Kolt crying.

She stared up at the ceiling, a little dismayed to find that she had woken up to the world she was hoping she would leave behind when she had closed her eyes hours before. She glanced at the clock and saw that it was three in the morning and she groaned a little bit. She and Chris had fallen asleep in the same positions that they had been in earlier while they were talking. She saw that he was still asleep and instead of waking him up and trying to get him to take the responsibility of the little boy, she wasn't that cruel.

She ascended from her position and walked through the dark hallways lit only by the outside light to the nursery. Kolt was crying louder now and she feared that it would wake up Chris and Harper. She quickly picked up Kolt from where he lay and held him in her arms. She walked around a little bit, wondering how someone did this every night for months and wasn't driven crazy. She walked out into the living room and sat down on the couch in the dark, comforted by it.

If everything was dark, then she couldn't see the world around her and believe that it was hers, for now, maybe forever. When it was dark, she could pretend, if only for a moment, that none of this was real, that her eyes were playing tricks on her, that the baby in her arms was just a figment of her imagination. It covered everything with a blanket of surrealism, like she was in some waking nightmare, a permanent punishment for some transgression she had long forgotten.

The silence, now that Kolt had ceased his wailing, was also a welcomed state. This day had been so hectic, being thrust into this world that she didn't belong to. She had seen people she saw always and they hadn't really known her. She had been surrounded by strangers who she saw everyday, and yet couldn't remember, like Harper's preschool teacher. She had seen a husband that didn't know what it was like to kiss her when she could still feel the lingering touch of his kisses the night before, or maybe it was a lifetime ago, or maybe it had never happened.

Maybe this had been her life and she had just never truly seen it. Maybe this was it, and she was living it finally and had been in some other strange dream that she had been too quick to believe. Maybe being married to Paul had been the dream, and Chris had been the reality. The silence afforded her these thoughts, let them sink in to the cacophony of her mind and swirl and swirl into an endless stream of color and sound and overwhelming feelings of punishment and Limbo.

She got up again, a motion of living, bringing Kolt back to his nursery and gently settling him down in his bed. He had just been cranky, but she checked his diaper and saw that he needed a new one, and quickly changed him before going back to the bedroom, glancing at the clock and seeing that an entire hour had passed. It had seemed infinitely shorter though, a few minutes at best, but as she stared at the clock, she realized that this was the time she had woken up last night, and had gone downstairs to the pool and where she had fallen asleep before waking up here. She delighted in that fact a moment before turning on the light and kneeling on the bed to shake Chris awake.

"Huh…huh, Jess?"

Stephanie ignored the sting and looked down at him, her dyed blonde hair falling around her face and for the first time, she realized she hated this color on her, "No, it's me."

"Steph?" Chris asked, his sleepy state confusing him. He looked around, "Are we home?"

"No, we're not, but I'm thinking that we _will_ be," she told him excitedly, her lips turning up into a smile.

"Why? Did you figure out a way home?" he wondered expectantly, sitting up and looking around like Stephanie had built a spaceship that would take them back home. "Is there some way that we can get back!"

"No, but last night, when I woke up, I woke up and I went outside and I was sitting in one of the lounge chairs and I must've fallen asleep, but I woke up at four in the morning, like it is now," she rambled quickly. "It was exactly the same, I woke up at the same time, this is probably a sign. Like if I fall asleep at the same time I did last night, we can be home tomorrow morning."

"You really think it just works that way?" he asked.

"Of course, it's like in all the movies," Stephanie said. "We set it up like we were the night before, and everything goes back to normal."

"What the hell were you doing sitting on a lounge chair at four in the morning?" Chris inquired curiously.

"I was looking at the stars," she told him quickly, almost dismissively. "But if I go to bed right now, we wake up in our regular lives and we pretend like this never happened. I'll get back to Paul and you can get back to Jessica, and everything will be right with the world. Then the other Chris and Stephanie can get back to their kids because they're probably worried sick, and crisis averted."

"Okay, I'll let you believe that," Chris muttered under his breath, but she was right there, so she had obviously heard what she had said. She folded her arms under breasts and glared at him, an icy glare.

"What do you mean by that?" she demanded to know.

"I just don't think that things like this work that way," he said. "I mean, we recreate everything that we were doing in some vain attempt to get back home? It rings false to me."

She shook her head, "Why are you so against this? I'm just trying to think of ways that'll get us back home, you want to go home, remember? You don't even know where Jessica is in this world. You want to see her and be able to tell her how you feel, don't you? If we stay here, you could find her like I found Paul, married, happy, and what happens then, huh Chris, we go on being miserable just because we're stuck here? That doesn't sound like the way that I want to live out the rest of my life."

"Look, that's not how I want to live out the rest of my life either, but I just don't think that's the way to get back," he told her honestly.

"And do I see you coming up with any theories on how we're going to get back?" He remained silent at that, and she knew that she had caught him. "See, you don't have anything. Chris, this could work, it could really work."

"I'm going back to sleep, if we wake up in our normal lives tomorrow, don't come talk to me okay," Chris told her, turning onto his side away from her, probably because he was now mad at her.

"Fine, if that's the way that you want to act, fine," she said, laying down herself as she stared up at the ceiling. "Just wait Chris, you'll see, I'll be right, and you'll be wrong, and then everything will be back to normal, you'll see."

The next morning dawned early, like usual. Stephanie found herself wrapped around someone and she smiled sleepily as she realized she must be home and she was now cuddling her husband and she would wake up and find that her life was normal and she had just had a very strange and very vivid dream. She laughed breathily as she hugged her husband closer to her. She opened her eyes and blinked a couple times, seeing that this wasn't her room. She bit her lip and slowly looked up into Chris's blue eyes.

"So tell me again how we were supposed to wake up in our normal lives?" Chris told her. She gasped and realized her position, pulling away.

"I'm sorry," she said sheepishly, tucking her hair behind her ears in nervousness. "I didn't meant to fall asleep on you, I guess since we were on the same bed, I just kind of…"

"Don't worry about it," Chris told her. "I just didn't want to wake you since you seemed so happy last night. I just didn't…I didn't want to see the look of disappointment on your face when you woke up and we were right back where we started."

"Oh," she said. "Nothing's changed?"

"Doesn't seem so," he shrugged, looking around. "I haven't exactly been able to move, but I'm thinking that we're either going to hear a baby crying very soon or Harper is going to run in here like she did yesterday."

"Probably," Stephanie said, sitting there as she stared at the window behind the bed. "I was so sure…"

"Hey, don't worry about it," Chris told her, sitting forward to put his hand on her shoulder. "You were just so anxious to get home that you thought that you had a way. I don't blame you, if I thought the same thing, I'm sure I'd be jumping out of my skin."

"Yeah," Stephanie said. "So we're really stuck here, aren't we? I mean, yesterday just wasn't a fluke, a little mishap in the space/time continuum? We're really here."

"Yeah, at least for now," he told her. "I'm really sorry that I wasn't who you wanted me to be, Stephanie."

"What?" she asked in alarm. "What do you mean by that?"

"I meant that I wasn't Paul that you were waking up to. I know that you would've rather have woken up to him, and I'm just sorry that I'm not him."

"Oh," she said, waving him off lightly, looking down quickly as she perked up. "I'm going to go check on Kolt and see if Harper is up and you know…ready for school and stuff."

"Did you want me to help?"

"If you want," she shrugged. "I know how to get to Harper's school, so I can take her. I remember the route from yesterday, it's not that far, kind of a posh, little school, actually. I mean, I guess I could see sending my kids there, if I had any, which I don't. It's a good school from what I could tell though, the grounds were nice, and Declan is there so Shane and Marissa thought it was nice too, obviously, I wonder if I suggested it to them though since, you know, Harper is older than Declan and everything…"

"You're rambling again," he pointed out. She gulped a little bit, looking embarrassed and sheepish. She tended to ramble when she got nervous, it was a bad habit, but she just couldn't help herself when the mood arose. "How about I get Kolt, and you get Harper."

"Yeah, sounds good," she said, walking out of the room without another word, walking down to Harper's room. She had been so sure that she would wake up and be home again, but it just wasn't to be. She had dearly hoped that it had all been a dream, but as she pushed open the door to Harper's room, the harsh glow of reality struck once again. She knelt next to the girl's bed and gently shook her awake, wondering if that was the best thing to do to a three-year-old. "Harper, wake up, time for preschool."

Harper opened her eyes slowly, "Mommy?"

"Hey there," Stephanie said with a smile, finding herself more and more enchanted by the little girl lying there. It was so hard to remain neutral when you could see yourself in a little girl's face, when you knew that on some level, even if it was just molecular, that this child was yours. "You have to get up and get read for school."

"School?" she asked delightedly, sitting up in bed. "Yay!"

"I know, it's so much fun," she laughed, "So come on, let's get you dressed and then we can have some breakfast."

"Can I have cereal?" Harper asked, more self-assured this morning than she had been yesterday morning. There seemed to be a shift in her mother's attitude. Yesterday, she had been a little scared of her mother, which had never happened before, but today it was just like she really did have her mommy here with her and that was a good thing.

"Of course you can have cereal," Stephanie said, hoping that Harper wasn't lactose-intolerant or something or allergic to milk. How would one find out allergies like that? They must have a file or something, she deduced, she would look for that later. She didn't want to hurt these kids lest she get in real trouble for that with the powers that be.

After Harper was dressed and fed, Stephanie grabbed her hand, and with a nod of the head, brought her out of the penthouse and to school. Chris, who had been taking care of the baby all morning, put him in his carrier and then went over to the phone. He looked around, as if Stephanie would suddenly appear out of nowhere and wonder what he was doing. He didn't want her around for this though. He didn't know why he was being secretive about this, it wasn't like she hadn't seen Paul the day before, but for some reason or another, he just didn't want her here.

He was all in with Stephanie right now. He had to be though, they had to take care of their kids and live this life so that people wouldn't become suspicious of them. But they did have other lives, lives they had been living and if he hadn't been curious about what had happened to Jessica, then what kind of husband was he. Sure, in this world she was only his ex-girlfriend, someone he had dated briefly before dating Stephanie apparently, but still, in his other life, she was someone important.

He picked up the number he had found online the night before, while Stephanie had been asleep, thinking that she was going home when she woke up. Chris wasn't that naïve, nothing could be so simple that closing his eyes would take him back where he wanted to be. Who knew, maybe this was where he wanted to be. Maybe this was where he was _supposed_ to be, and that thought was certainly sobering. Maybe this was just them being shown what they could be, but he didn't have time for that right now. Jessica was out there, and if she was single…well, he didn't know what he'd do if he found her single and willing to see him. Having an affair on his wife would cause ramifications if he was transported home tomorrow, but the thought was crossing his mind.

If she was unattached and he saw her, would he really be able to resist treating her like the wife that he knew? Stephanie wasn't really his wife, and this wasn't his life, so how could he be so self-assured that he wouldn't just naturally fall back into his old life? He could do it too, if he was going to be stuck here forever. It wouldn't be so different, he would just have two kids and a divorce under his belt, but he could have that life. For a brief moment, he was thinking completely selfishly, thinking only of what he wanted, and he was so ready to just leave Stephanie in the dust. He didn't care though, if that meant he could have some semblance of his old life back. But those were crazy thoughts, maybe Stephanie was right, and one night when they closed their eyes, they would be back to where they belonged.

Against his better judgment earlier, he hadn't extricated Stephanie from his arms. He figured she might need the comfort after the upset that came with waking up in this other world. Instead of being upset though, she had seemed resigned, and it just went to show how much she had changed in his time away from the ring, maybe even longer, this change happening so slowly he had never taken notice. She was different, and he kind of wanted her to be upset, kind of wanted to comfort her, just because it was familiar, but even Stephanie wasn't so familiar in this world.

He picked up the phone number again and looked at it for another second before doing what he knew that he had to do. He dialed the number slowly, as if waiting for Stephanie to burst through the door and catch him red-handed. But she didn't, so he continued as he heard the ringing and then the click of someone picking it up.

"Hello…Mrs. Lockheart, my name is Chris Irvine and I used to date your daughter…"


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: The poem is _To My Dear and Loving Husband_ by Anne Bradstreet, written in approximately 1678, so yeah, it's probably public domain by now, but yeah, credit to the author. :)

Hope you enjoy, and review, please!

* * *

"You have _business_ to take care of?"

"Yeah, I do," Chris told her.

She sipped at her coffee as she looked at him. Harper was sitting on the couch watching a videotape of Sesame Street and Kolt was in his carrier sitting on top of the table as Stephanie gently bounced him up and down to keep him occupied. She looked at Chris and couldn't believe that he had some sort of business to take care of and that he was going to leave her. He was going to leave her with two kids by herself.

"Yeah, I'm going to go on Tuesday," Chris said. "I won't be gone for more than a couple of days. I promise."

"But why, where are you going, why do you need to go?" Stephanie pleaded to know. She didn't want Chris to leave her here with these two kids by herself. She didn't think that she could take care of the two of them by herself.

"Well, I actually got a call from Rich, you know Rich, the guy that I'm in Fozzy with…"

"I'm well aware who he is," Stephanie interjected. "So you're going to go to Florida or something to see him, can we go with you? I just don't want to stay here by myself, I don't think that I can do it, Chris."

"I'll only be gone a couple of days, Steph, I swear to you, it'll only be a couple of days. I will not leave you here longer than you can handle, I promise," he told her, grabbing her hand. She looked down at it, noticing how his hand fit right with hers, and how he was giving her gentle squeezes every now and then.

"I'm just scared that I can't do this," she confessed to him.

"You're going to be great," Chris told her, trying to reassure her. "I just need to do this because…well, we're trying to act normal, right? If one of my bandmates calls me to meet with him, I should feel like I can go and leave you alone."

"Are you sure that we can't come?"

"It'd be boring, and we've never traveled with kids before, and Kolt is like, what, two months old, yeah, I don't think he should be traveling more than necessary."

"Fine," she said, defeated. She looked to Kolt, who was looking particularly hungry. "I've got to get a bottle for him." She stood up and walked to the kitchen.

"I'll be in the office for a second," he called to her and she nodded, knowing that Kolt wasn't going to go anywhere. He stood and then turned to go to the office, but something stopped him. It wasn't a something though, it was Stephanie. He paused to watch her as she rooted through the cupboards for a clean bottle for the baby. She hadn't yet gotten used to what was behind the closed doors of the kitchen, and so she was resorting to just searching through everything. But two days was hardly enough time to memorize everything. She blew her hair out of her face and he stood there, just watching her, this strangely domesticated Stephanie that she didn't want to be. Yet, here she was, standing there, getting a bottle for their baby, making sure that he was taken care of. He couldn't watch anymore and he scurried off to the office before he subjected himself to more in-depth analysis of this life he was living.

He closed the door behind him, locking it, knowing that he didn't want her to walk in here while he was on the phone. He sat down behind the desk, and funnily enough, or not, the first things his eyes caught were the picture frames sitting there, multi-colored, filled in with pictures of a life he hadn't led. The pictures were the hardest because they were memories. They were moments captured and frozen in time, sitting there, mocking him, telling him that this was what happened and the life he knew, the life he thought he had lived, didn't exist. Because instead of being with Jessica on Valentine's Day 2006, he was with Stephanie and Harper, sitting in what appeared to be a gondola in what appeared to be Italy. Thinking quickly, he realized that Stephanie would've had to be pregnant in this picture. This was what had happened, and what he thought had happened, never really did.

He picked up the phone and looked down at the piece of paper with two numbers on it. He locked his eyes on it for a few moments, and then picked up the phone in front of him, looking at the paper as he dialed the numbers. He waited for someone to pick up on the other end, finally hearing the click and a voice.

"Hi, yes, I'd like to book a flight to Duluth for next Tuesday."

"Okay, roundtrip or one-way?"

"Roundtrip," Chris said, finding his eyes wandering back to the picture sitting on the desk in front of him, the picture of Stephanie and him, well, not _him_, but it was of him. God, he couldn't even make it sound right in his head, how could he ever hope to explain this to anyone? Could he ever really explain this to anyone anyways? Nobody would believe him.

"Sir? Are you still there?"

"Oh yeah, sorry," Chris said, going about giving the woman his information and his credit card number to book the flight.

The flight that would take him to Jessica.

He had called her parents and said that she was an old boyfriend, and they had actually remembered him, though vaguely since it was more than a decade ago that he had dated Jessica. He had mentioned that he was going to be in the area and was wondering what her address was so he could go to see her. Given that Chris had a modicum of success and her parents had somehow known that, they had readily given up her information, and he had found that Jessica was living in Duluth, Minnesota, which was still in her home state.

Yes, he had lied to Stephanie, but he didn't want her to know what he was doing. He had to do this on his own like she had seen Paul on her own. Plus, if she came along and Jessica was single, he didn't want to speculate what would happen, but he wouldn't be able to help himself. He hung up the phone when his flight had been confirmed, and was told that he could print the tickets online, which would come in handy. He looked at the second number on his list and took a deep breath, picking up the phone again and dialing, more swift this time than the last.

"Hello?" Chris heard his wife's voice and he sighed a little bit. It was the same. "Hello, is someone there?"

"Uh is…is Jessica there?"

"Speaking," she chirped.

"Uh, sorry, wrong Jessica," he said, hanging up the phone quickly. He felt like such a coward, but he didn't know what to say to her. He just needed to hear her voice, to make sure that she existed, that at least she was here and this wasn't some kind of universe meant to only screw with him. While Paul was so much closer to Stephanie, he was going to have to go a ways to see to Jessica.

He heard a laughing coming from behind the door and he stood up to see what was up. He opened the door and then shut it behind him, hearing something crash to the floor. He immediately opened up the door again and saw that a picture frame had come loose from the wall and had fallen to the ground. He picked up and was going to set it on a side table before looking down at it. It was a picture frame all right. In the bottom of the frame was a slightly younger version of Chris and Stephanie, and they standing together, and Stephanie was very obviously pregnant. She was sticking her tongue out while Chris made a funny face. He looked down at his hand, which was so obviously protectively over her swollen stomach. This had to be from Harper, he realized as he saw his longer hair pulled back into a ponytail. Above the picture was a poem, and he knew that Stephanie was a poetry nut, so he wasn't surprised that she had poetry on here. He found himself reading before he could even think.

_If ever two were one, then surely we._

_If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee. _

_If ever wife was happy in a man, _

_Compare with me, ye women, if you can. _

_I prize thy love more than whole Mines of gold _

_Or all the riches that the East doth hold. _

_My love is such that Rivers cannot quench, _

_Nor ought but love from thee give recompetence. _

_Thy love is such I can no way repay. _

_The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray. _

_Then while we live, in love let's so persever _

_That when we live no more, we may live ever._

Chris found his breath shaky after reading that then glanced over at Stephanie who was sitting on the couch, talking light-heartedly with Harper as she fed Kolt. She looked up and saw Chris in the doorway to the office and she waved him over with her head. He set the picture frame down quickly and walked over to the three of them, sitting down on the other side of Harper, lifting her to sit on his lap. She leaned back against him, happy to be with her daddy.

"What was so funny?" he asked.

"Harper was just telling me a joke, why don't you tell that to Daddy," Stephanie said, glancing at Chris and wondering if it was okay that she referred to him that way. He seemed distracted and let it go.

"Okay!" Harper exclaimed, leaning her head back to look at Chris. "Why did the chicken cross the playground?"

"I don't know, why?" Chris told her.

"To get to the other slide," she giggled as she tried to get the joke out. Stephanie laughed as did Chris, delighting the little girl. "Isn't that funny, Daddy?"

"It's hilarious," he told her, "you should be a comedian with all those jokes."

"No Daddy," Harper told him. "I want to be like Mommy."

"Oh, ambitious," Chris said, looking over at Stephanie, who just shrugged.

"Mommy, can I go play in my room?" Harper asked.

"Yeah, just be careful going up the stairs, okay?"

"Yeah!" Harper yelled, jumping off the couch and trudging her way up the stairs to her room to go play. Stephanie watched her and then looked over to Chris, who seemed to be studying her rather intensely.

"What?" she asked.

"They loved each other."

"Who?" she wondered.

"Chris and Stephanie in this world. I think they really, really love each other," he mused. "I know it's stupid because they're married and they have two kids, you'd hope they love each other, but it's different. They really wanted to be together, and really wanted to have a life together."

"Strange, isn't it?" she said softly, looking to the carpet. "It's just strange how things could turn out so differently if one or two things can be changed. It's like…you know, it's just strange that in this world, things like this happen. They seemed happy. Everyone seems to think they're like the golden couple."

"And then here we come along, to screw it all up."

"You should go find Jessica," Stephanie said. "I'm sure there's some way that you can find her. You should explore all those avenues. I don't know if it'll help you to see her, but if you can gain some sense of normalcy, I say that you should go for it."

Chris didn't want her blessing, it was strange. It was like she was giving him permission to be with his wife. But it made what he was going to do a lot easier. He still wasn't going to tell her, but it was nice to know that she approved on some level of what he was going to do. He did deserve the chance to find her. Stephanie had gotten to see Paul, and it was only fair that he got to see the life being lived that he should be a part of.

"If she's single?" Chris wondered aloud, just to see what Stephanie's reaction would be.

"If she's single, we'll just have to proceed from there," she told him seriously. "I'm not going to deny you the chance to be happy."

Her words seemed to carry more weight than they usually did, and he figured out what she meant almost immediately. He looked at her again, catching her gaze. She held his eyes, matching his blue with her gray-blue. Their eyes were giving away every emotion that was swirling within them, but whether or not they could be read was another story entirely. He broke the gaze first, staring out the window to the ever-darkening sky.

"We have a dinner with my family tomorrow night," Stephanie told him, to which he immediately looked back at her. "I saw it on Stephanie's day planner. It seems to be a thing they do every couple of weeks."

"You don't do that in your life?"

"No way, but apparently they do it here, so I just wanted to let you know ahead of time, give you time to prepare. I'm going to try to read up on our lives a little bit more, see what else I can dig up that won't make us look like fools," she explained to him. "It's nice to know where we stand on some things. I would hate to get asked an easy question and look like a deer caught in headlights."

"I want you to be happy too," Chris told her out-of-the-blue. She looked at him, surprised by his delayed reaction. "I want you to be happy in this world, like you were happy in the last one. I want you to get what you want."

"In this world or the last one?"

"Both."

"I don't think that's possible either way," Stephanie told him, her voice dropping as she looked to the sleeping Kolt. He was two months old, that was all he ever seemed to do. "Look Chris, if you have the chance, I just want you to know that I'm okay with you going for it, that's all. As for the other life I was leading, it was fine…I was good."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, really," she told him. "In this world, we want different things because we're different people, if you find Jessica, I'm not going to hold you back from that, I swear to you. Because she's what you want, and I understand that, I've always…you should look her up."

"I've…I've actually got to make a phone call," Chris said, standing up again. "If you'll excuse me…"

"Of course," she said, "I'm going to bring Kolt up to his room and put him down."

"Sounds good."

Stephanie stood up and started to walk up the stairs, being careful not to jostle Kolt in her arms. Chris ended up watching her again. Living this life just brought a whole different side to her, and it made him a little bit wistful thinking about his old life for reasons he had buried deep inside. He and Jessica were thinking about having kids, and now he had two of his own by another woman, not like he had any say in the matter. Stephanie was just so different around those kids, it shocked him. He walked back into the office and dialed a number he had just dialed a little while before. He waited again for the click, prepared this time for what he was going to say.

"Hi, yes, there's a reservation I'd like to cancel."


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: Thanks to those who review and if you don't...um, could you, because I'm not sure people are liking this story. Thanks. :)

* * *

"Do we dress up for these things or not?"

"I don't know," Chris said. "You expect me to know how to dress to something I've never been to in my life?"

"Well I was hoping you'd have some insight," Stephanie said as she looked over at him. "You can't wear that."

Chris looked down at his jeans and pull over sweater. It wasn't anything fancy, but it wasn't anything dumpy either. "Why not? I actually have this outfit at home, isn't that weird, it's nice to know that the other Chris has the same tastes that I do."

"If by taste you mean color-blind," she said, looking at the orange sweater distastefully. "Put on some nice pants and then a button-down shirt, that would look good on you. I think I saw something like that in your closet."

"God, pushy," Chris muttered as he pulled his shirt off. Stephanie tried not to look at him, but she couldn't help it, he was standing right in front of her. She didn't need to wipe the drool off her face or anything silly like that, but she had to admit that his body had not deterred from what she had grown used to…working with him and all that.

"I'm sorry, I just don't know how this goes," Stephanie told him. "I don't know if we dress up, I don't know if we dress down, or bring anything. All it said in the planner was, 'Dinner with Mom and Dad,' and that was it. I'm assuming that since it's my parents, it's going to be semi-nice dress. I don't want them to call us out. That would be terrible, people would think we were nuts."

"Maybe we _are_ nuts, ever think of that?"

"No, because you can't be nuts if you think that you're nuts, it doesn't work that way. I just want to appear like the normal family that we're supposed to be. I don't think that's too hard. Please?"

"I wasn't arguing with you," he said as he walked inside the closet. "Are the kids ready?"

"Yeah, they're sitting out there waiting for us. They probably know that something's wrong with us, kids are so astute like that."

"I don't think they do," Chris said. "She would've said something, don't you think?"

"I guess," Stephanie shrugged as she pulled her shirt off, looking for another color. She figured that Chris was in the closet and he wouldn't be walking out any time soon. She rooted through her drawers looking for a red top, any red top would do. She found one and grinned at herself before standing upright and turning around, seeing Chris standing there, and she gasped, covering herself up.

"Oh, sorry," Chris mumbled as he turned away to button up his shirt. "I wasn't aware that you were…in your bra."

"It's okay," she said. "Tight quarters and all that. It's not like it's nothing you haven't seen before…I mean, you've seen breasts and bras, and you work with divas, what am I saying?"

Chris laughed uncomfortably, not used to being this close with Stephanie, those days had gotten away from him. He turned back around and found that she was decent and went to grab the watch that was sitting on the dresser, hooking it onto him as Stephanie admired the jewelry in the other Stephanie's jewelry box. She found a beautiful pair of earrings and started to put them on. Chris found himself watching her again and this had become common in the short interim since he had cancelled his reservation for a flight to see Jessica.

He wasn't as anxious to see her now, and the exact reason for that was hazy at best. It was a myriad of reasons really. He figured it would do no good to see her in this life. What would come of it? The only answer that he could come up would be nothing. Nothing could come of it because he was with Stephanie in this life, and he couldn't screw it up because he was selfish. He also found himself falling more into this life with Stephanie. He wasn't falling in love with Stephanie, he couldn't fall in love with her, but he was finding himself more content in this life after starting to get used to it. Seeing Jessica would ruin that, and then there was the whole possibility that she was married, had kids, the entire package. He didn't know how he would deal with that, so the obvious course of action was to just ignore it all.

"You ready?" Stephanie's voice broke his thoughts and he looked at her in the doorway. He nodded and followed her out of the room.

"I look pretty, Mommy!" Harper said as she stood on the couch.

"You sure do," Stephanie told her as the little girl hopped into Chris's arms. Stephanie picked up Kolt's carrier as Chris took his diaper bag from her. She shot him a thankful look and he threw her back a shy smile. Things were getting easier by the day and it almost felt like they could actually fall into a routine.

Stephanie was the one who drove over to her parent's house, since she was the one familiar with how to get there. Chris just sat in the passenger seat and contemplated whether he had made the right decision in not going to see Jessica. Sure, he could've made the decision, but that didn't mean he was free from the ramifications of the decision he had come to. He didn't know how long he was going to be here, maybe it was just for tonight, maybe tomorrow he'd be in his own bed again, and then it would've been inconsequential to go see her. If they hadn't gone home in a month, he would go to see her, but not before then.

"So do you remember everything we talked about?" Stephanie asked, breaking the comfortable silence of the car, the two of them thinking, Kolt sleeping in the backseat, and Harper quietly looking at a book.

"Yeah," he responded. "We studied and read everything that we could possibly read, so I feel at least a little bit prepared in case we're asked any questions."

"Good, I don't want my family to think that there's something wrong, that would be a disaster," she said as she pulled onto the private street where Vince and Linda's house was. Stephanie pulled into the driveway and turned off the car. "I just want things to go smoothly, okay?"

"I know," he told her with a kind look. "Don't worry, I'm going to play the part of your husband to perfection, they'll never suspect a thing."

"I just hope we know what we're doing. We're just guessing that this Chris and Stephanie are happy, I mean, what if they aren't? What if they were on the verge of getting divorced and everyone knows that they're having problems."

"I don't think that's the case," Chris said, and he didn't know exactly how he had come to this conclusion, but it seemed reasonable enough. "I think they're happy."

"Let's hope," she said, crossing her fingers and getting out of the car. "I'll get the baby. Time to put on a show."

Chris got out of the car as well and opened the door for Harper, who was struggling to get out of her booster seat. Chris unbuckled it for her and helped her out of the car. Stephanie and Kolt were already up ahead and Chris and Harper followed to the door. Stephanie rang the doorbell, a little anxious to see her parents again. Her parents were something familiar, something that she knew and could relate to. The door opened and Linda greeted them with a smile.

"There you are, we've been expecting you."

"Sorry, Mom, Chris takes forever," Stephanie joked, glancing back at Chris, who gave her a playful glare. "Sorry for being late."

"Nonsense, no need to be sorry," Linda said, taking Kolt from her arms. "Oh, there's my little boy. Grandma just loves to hold you, and Grandpa is very, very anxious to see you, he wants to tell you all about the business since you're coming to work on Monday."

"Don't work him too hard, Linda," Chris kidded as he took Harper's jacket off and hung it up near the door with his own coat. He walked over to Stephanie and helped with her coat too, and she smiled at him graciously.

"Steph, is that you!" Marissa called from the other room, showing up a second later and practically skipped over to Stephanie. "There you are, I have been waiting for you, I knew that we all should've come together. Come on, I _need _to talk to you."

"Okay," Stephanie laughed, this Marissa was exactly like the one she had always known. "Chris, take care of Harper?"

"Of course," he said, hoping that Stephanie wasn't going to be too overwhelmed with whatever she was going to do with Marissa. Marissa took Stephanie into one of the entertainment rooms that Vince had and closed the door excitedly.

"Okay, so tell me, how are you and Chris?"

Stephanie's eyes widened, but there was no way that Marissa could know that she wasn't the real Stephanie. She didn't know what to say so she just shrugged and said, "Uh, we're fine…"

"Did you guys solve the problems you were having though?" Marissa said as she grabbed Stephanie's hands and pulled her down onto the couch, curling up on one end as she looked to Stephanie on the other end.

"Problems?"

"The ones we talked about last week, remember?"

"Oh…uh, yeah, yeah, the problems we were having…" Stephanie was trying to wrack her brain. She wasn't aware they had problems, but maybe Chris was right. Maybe they were on the verge of divorce or something, and maybe that meant she would be free to pursue Paul, even if he was married to Joanie. "I…yeah…"

"So, did you resolve it, I know that you were anxious to, but you didn't know how to bring it up. Did you bring it up, is everything worked out?"

"My mind is having a blonde moment, I need to be reminded of what we talked about."

"The sex thing, how you hadn't had sex since before Kolt was born and how you wanted to get back to it and Chris was hesitant and you weren't doing anything in the bedroom. Come on, Steph, I need details, we're sisters, this is what sisters do. You asked me for advice last week, any of this ringing a bell?"

Stephanie blushed deeply thinking about sex between her and Chris. She didn't think this was the appropriate time to be talking about this. She thought that maybe it was something that she could easily lie about, but this was no lying matter. This was definitely something that was very personal. She bit her lip a little bit.

"We're…no, we haven't…"

"Oh," Marissa said. "Don't worry about it, hun, it takes time. Although, between you and me, if I were married to Chris, I don't think I'd hesitate." There was the Marissa she knew, always flirting with someone. It was something that Stephanie never was.

"Well…he's good, he's definitely good," she said, blushing further.

"I knew it!" Marissa exclaimed. "But don't worry, you'll fall back into the groove and then everything will be normal and you won't have it hanging over your heads any longer. Give it time."

"Yeah, time," Stephanie said. "I'm going to go find Chris."

"Harper's probably playing with Dec, and Kolt is probably with Kenyon and Vince and Linda, you should go find Chris and give him a little surprise in your old bedroom," Marissa joked.

"Rissa!" Stephanie said, and if her face got any redder she would have to be sold at a supermarket as a tomato. "I couldn't do that with my parents in the house."

"Sure you could, your parents are way too preoccupied with the kids, since they love having them here, and it's not like anybody would care, you're married. Shane and I have done it before while…"

"Don't finish that sentence," Stephanie said, and this was the most normal she had felt since she had been in this world. Gossiping and laughing with Marissa was something they always did. She and Shane had been high school sweethearts, and Stephanie had been only nine when she first met Marissa so they had really grown up like sisters. "Dear God, don't finish that sentence."

"Fine, fine, but it's still a fact," Marissa giggled. "But come on, we're adults here, we each have two kids, oh God, two kids each, how _do_ we do it?"

Stephanie laughed. "I think I should go talk to Chris."

"I'll distract everyone for that quickie you want," Marissa called out cheekily as Stephanie left the room. She walked down the hallway and saw pictures of herself that were always there, and then the picture that was usually from her wedding to Paul was now replaced by a picture of her wedding with Chris. She turned away quickly and bumped right into Chris.

"Sorry," she mumbled. "Where's Harper?"

"Playing with Declan, Shane's watching them, why, what's up?"

"Well, Marissa was just interrogating me about you, and if we were back to sleeping with each other after Kolt was born," Stephanie said embarrassedly. "I had to get out of there, I didn't really want to have to talk about having sex with you, it wasn't something I was prepared to do."

"I should've come and saved you," Chris said, tucking some of her hair behind her ear. "It's weird being here." He walked around, looking at the grand piano that sat in the posh, and rarely used living room. He stopped to look at the pictures on top of the piano.

"Why's it weird?" she wondered as she came to stand next to him. He glanced over at her and shrugged, not sure how he wanted to voice himself right now. He sighed and she waited for him to speak.

"Just never been here before," he said, and she could sense something in his tone of voice, but she couldn't quite pinpoint the emotion. It sounded slightly wistful, but she just couldn't be sure.

She reached out and touched his shoulder. "Well, to them you have."

"Yeah…to them," he replied, glancing over his shoulder like someone was waiting for them. Stephanie looked too, wondering if there was, but there was nobody. "But really, I've never been here even though your mom seems to think this is like our second home."

"Third, we do have a second home, the summer…yeah, now's not a time to spout off the stuff we read, right? You just have to act like you've been here before. We talked about the layout, you should kind of be familiar with where you are."

"Yeah," he told her, and he couldn't explain himself to her, not now, it would just make her angry. He didn't want to make her angry. He just wanted to get through this night with her. "So Marissa…"

"Wants us to go have a quickie upstairs."

He raised an eyebrow and looked over at her. "A quickie?"

"Yeah, to get it over with. I mean, I wouldn't do that with you, we're both…we're married, and not to each other and so you know, we can't exactly just go upstairs and start making out or having sex or something like that, it'd make no sense whatsoever, and what if we did and my parents caught us, it'd be so awkward," she rambled as Chris stepped closer. He gave her a kind, amused smile. She took a breath and looked up at him. "What are you looking at?"

"You just keep rambling on and on about us having sex and I find it endearing," Chris said to her. "It's cute that it makes you so flustered, I never thought you would be flustered by sex."

"I haven't always been that way." He nodded and stepped even closer. "Why are you coming closer? Don't come any closer."

"You're just so funny when you're all confused and everything. You get the cutest, little, worried look. And then you bite your lip," he said, pointing to her face. "Oh, there it is, right now, right there. You just…you're cute."

"You think I'm cute?"

"I've always thought you were cute," he told her, running his hand down her arm, emboldened now with all this talk about the two of them. "So there were no problems in our marriage then?"

"Not a one," she told him, and she felt like the room was getting warmer. She thought that she could feel something in the air, something that she hadn't felt in a while, a very long while. She could see Chris licking his lips, wetting them in anticipation of…something. Someone should interrupt right now, it would be the only fair thing. That's how it worked right, someone would come along, announce dinner was ready and she wasn't going to travel years into the past of this Chris and Stephanie, where kissing was good and wanted and needed most of all. Someone should walk in…but nobody was walking in.

But then the hurt, the old, familiar pain shot through her entire body and she turned and walked away without another word. This wasn't her Chris. This was Jessica's Chris, Jessica's husband and not her husband. They were stuck here, but they weren't together, and she faced those facts. Chris watched her go and he sighed, turning to his left to pick up the picture of him and Stephanie with her entire family on some beach somewhere, a family vacation of sorts. He snorted as he looked at it, a family vacation with the McMahons. He wouldn't believe it until he saw this with his own eyes and even now, he was skeptical.

He walked out of the room, wondering if this world was just mocking him now.


	12. Chapter 12

"The dinner was great, Linda, I don't think Steph and I have had anything really homemade since Kolt was born, and you never disappoint."

Stephanie was impressed with Chris's lie as the adults sat around the table. Harper and Declan were watching a video in the other room where Stephanie and Marissa could peek in on them to make sure they were okay. Kolt and Kenyon were upstairs asleep in the cribs that Linda and Vince kept in their house just for these occasions as the adults enjoyed coffee after dinner.

"Well, with kids it's hard," Linda said. "But it'll get better when Kolt gets older."

"Yeah, it will," Marissa joked, "Since you know, Kenyon is so grown up being three months older than Kolt. Next time, let's coordinate our babies to be born in the exact same week. Deal?"

Stephanie had to laugh at that, "Deal."

"Great, that way, they can just share clothes and everything and they'll be the best of friends and grow up together and everything, just like we would hope," Marissa said, painting a funny picture for them. The dinner had gone pretty smoothly, Chris and Stephanie had felt out of place a few times, but usually just kept out of the conversation when that happened. It was odd for them both to observe this dinner, so cordial and homey. Stephanie never had any of these, and Chris was just amazed at the fluidity that the McMahon family had with each other. He expected heated debates and ugly words between everyone, but it wasn't like that at all. They were friendly and kind, and welcomed him…well, considering he had been married to Stephanie for years and years in this world, he should've expected that.

"I'm so ready to see my grandkids this Monday," Vince exposited proudly. "bring them into the fold early so they get used to the business."

Shane rolled his eyes. "I don't know what kind of business you're expecting a two-month-old to do, Dad."

"Oh, the normal stuff I'm sure," Stephanie was able to interject, knowing her father well, if not how he handled grandchildren. "Something light at first, maybe being the timekeeper or something. I think that could be done."

"Oh yes, make fun of me, but you know these children are the future of this company. Harper and Declan will be running everything soon enough," Vince told them, "Mark my words now, they'll be in charge one day and you'll have wanted to get them started early, you'll regret it."

"I think two months is a little too early," Chris laughed. "He can barely hold anything other than someone's fingers. Harper on the other hand, you can put her to work, she's good about that kind of stuff. She can almost tie her shoelaces." Chris had seen her almost get it earlier that day when he had tried to help her.

"We're blessed with smarty-pants," Stephanie said, glancing over at Chris, taking his hand and looking like the consummate couple in love with a new baby. Marissa gave Stephanie a knowing look over the table and Stephanie blushed a little. Marissa turned her eyes upstairs and raised her eyebrows suggestively. Stephanie widened her eyes and gave Marissa a look like she was absolutely crazy.

"What is going on with you two?" Shane asked as he observed the silent exchange between his wife and his sister. "Are you two flirting with each other?" he asked jokingly. Stephanie sent him a glare and he chuckled.

"Nothing, darling," Marissa said. "I was just wondering if Stephanie had done something that I suggested she do."

"What did you suggest?"

Stephanie was terrified that Marissa would blurt it out but Marissa was cool like that, "None of your business, it's between me and your sister, who is practically like my sister, so you don't get to know." She had affectively confused Shane enough for him to drop whatever it was she was trying to suggest to Stephanie. Chris saw this and knew what they were probably talking about, since Stephanie had told him what Marissa was suggesting they do. He got an idea to help get her off Stephanie's back. He brought Stephanie's hands up to his lips and gave her knuckles a soft kiss.

Stephanie, surprised, looked at her hand and saw Chris gazing over it, his blue eyes trailing her own, catching them every moment. She couldn't look away and she saw something in his eyes. It looked like he was happy to be where he was, or at least he was acting like that. She didn't know what to say as her mouth dropped over just the slightest bit. Chris took advantage of this and leaned over to press a soft kiss to her lips, expertly navigating his way around her mouth. She let herself fall into the kiss, for stage purposes of course, and as he pulled away, she leaned forward to capture them again.

"God, get a room, you two," Shane groaned. "The last thing I need to see is the precursor to my sister getting pregnant again."

"Aww, shut up, Shane," Marissa said, scrunching up her nose. "I think it's cute, you'd think that they were newlyweds, and not married forever and ever."

"Shut up," Chris said, pulling away from Stephanie and leaving her completely speechless. He hoped that she knew he had done that to get Marissa off her back and not because he felt compelled to. He was married after all, and so was she, and the line between married and adultery was especially blurred here. He could have sex with Stephanie tonight and in this world, it would be perfectly fine, but when he got home to his own world, he would've cheated on his wife, and he knew that cheating was a big no-no. "I can kiss my…wife if I want to."

It was so strange to say that to someone, anyone. For so long it had been Jessica and now it…wasn't. Stephanie would never make Chris give up wrestling, ever, since it was in her blood, and the kid issue was a moot point since they had kids already. Stephanie was his wife in this world; he came to realize the magnitude of that word in his brain. She was his wife and that meant something to everyone around them and to the kids that were technically theirs. It wasn't that they were living in a strange world, this world was the norm and Chris and Stephanie were invited to join it, and they had to abide by its rules. There was no way that he could go see Jessica, that wasn't in the rules here. The rules here were that he was married to Stephanie and he would make the best of it.

"Mommy," Declan said, coming into the dining room and rubbing his eyes.

"Oh, looks like someone's ready to go home," Marissa said, opening her arms up to her son. He walked over tiredly, holding his arms up to be picked up. Marissa picked him up where he settled against her shoulder, blinking slowly. "Are you tired, honey?"

"Yeah," he mumbled, starting to suck his thumb.

"Well, that's our cue," Marissa said. "We should go."

"Us too," Chris said, knowing that Harper was probably tired since Declan was tired. "We have a drive ahead of us and we should probably go before it gets really late."

"I still don't know why you just don't stay here," Linda said to them. "We have plenty of room and we could have breakfast in the morning, but you never stay."

"Mom, we want to sleep in our own beds, not in our old bedrooms with the creepy posters and stuff," Shane said, leaning over to kiss his mother's cheek. "We'll see you on Monday, bye guys."

They said their goodbyes, and Chris went into the other room to collect Harper while Stephanie and Marissa went upstairs to gather their babies. Marissa looped her arm through Stephanie's and giggled as she said, "So you and Chris were looking cozy, I bet that you go home, put the kids in bed, and do it until Kolt wakes you up."

"Why are you so obsessed with my sex life?" Stephanie asked.

"Because sweetie, we all love Chris and we want you to be happy."

"Is there any reason to doubt that Chris and I would be okay?" Stephanie asked, fishing for information. "Are you going to tell me that he's been cheating on me at the shows or something, or flirting with ring-rats, come on Rissa, spill."

"No, it's nothing like that, you just…well, you do understand because you have Kolt, I hardly get to go out and Shane gets to have all the fun, and I'm living vicariously through you," Marissa told her. "You get to go back to work, you have Chris at home more, you guys are doing great, and I need some spice in my life."

"So take a day off," Stephanie said. "We both should, next week, we'll take a day off and we can go to a day spa and get wrapped up in seaweed or something." Stephanie was familiar with this because she had suggested it to Marissa in her real life.

"That would be heavenly, it's a date," she said as she pushed open the door to the makeshift nursery that Vince and Linda always had set up. Stephanie went over and gently picked up Kolt, hoping that she was doing okay and that he wouldn't wake up. She wasn't used to carrying him around while he was asleep. Stephanie held him close to her as she went downstairs, where a rapidly falling asleep Harper and Chris were waiting. They went to their car, strapped the children in and made the way back home.

"Sorry about that kiss, I was hoping to get Marissa off your back about the sex thing," Chris told her after they rode in silence for a while.

"Don't worry about it, I just wasn't expecting it," she told him. "It was just a stage kiss, we've had those before, so it's not a big deal now."

"Yeah, I just thought I should apologize anyways. It's not my place to kiss you, but while we're in this world, people think we're married and it won't hurt anyone to act like we are around them. I mean, you know, just in public, not in private or anything."

"Yeah, I got what you meant," she said, falling back into her silence. "That was actually kind of fun, wasn't it?"

"It was," Chris said, but didn't say anymore for a few minutes. "It was kind of always how I pictured it, you know, your house, not like the dinner or anything, but I always knew that your parents had a nice house, and it was really nice. They're nice in this world."

"They're nice in the other one too," she argued. "You just never really got to see them outside of the business."

She knew she had said the wrong thing and she turned towards the window again as she heard him mumble something under his breath. She didn't dare look at him anymore, content to watch the lights blurring into lines as they passed them on the highway. Chris didn't say a word either, and the silence was uncomfortable. She leaned her head against the cool pane of the glass, wishing this world away. It didn't make sense to her, anything that happened here, it couldn't make sense to her. She missed her husband, she missed the life, the image that she had so carefully carved out for herself. This world had her being a completely foreign person that she didn't quite understand.

They arrived back at the penthouse and they each took a sleeping child inside. Stephanie took Harper to her room and helped the girl sleepily put on her pajamas and brush her teeth before climbing mechanically into bed, mumbling her goodnights to her mommy. Chris changed Kolt and set him in his crib, turning on the mobile above him to play a soothing lullaby to escort him into dreamland. Stephanie walked out at the same time as Chris, but he pushed past her to go change in the bedroom. Stephanie went down to the office, knowing that she should leave Chris alone for a while to calm down. She sat at the desk and looked over the contents, knowing that at some point she'd have to find the bills and pay them if they wanted water and heat, and whatnot.

Her eyes fell on a piece of paper with Chris's scrawled lettering on it. She picked it up and saw Jessica's name on it and a phone number. She looked at it curiously, wondering how long he had had this. And why wasn't he calling her? Or had he called her? She picked it up and walked out of the room before going and plopping herself on the couch where Chris was watching television.

"What's this?" she asked, thrusting the paper at him.

Chris looked down at it and then back up at her sheepishly. "Oh, that's, that's just Jessica's number, I called her parent's and got it, it's no big deal."

"Did you talk to her?"

"No, I didn't," he told her, and it was true, he really hadn't. He had chickened out. "I just don't see the point, we're not together in this world, just an old boyfriend and girlfriend, nothing more. Why bother her with this?"

"Because she's your wife."

"You're my wife here," he said firmly. "In this world my commitment is to you."

"So you didn't talk to her, are you at least going to go see her?" she wondered. "I mean, just to see what her life is like now, to see if you have a chance with her or anything? You are going to see her, right?"

"No, I decided not to, so let's drop it," Chris said, turning back towards the television.

"You should see her," Stephanie told him.

"Whatever," Chris muttered. "I'm watching this."

"Chris, why are you so flippant about this? She's your wife, you should go see her," Stephanie insisted.

"No!" Chris yelled. "I'm not going to go see her, and that's final, don't try to argue with me on this, okay, it's over, done with."

"Why are you acting like this?" Stephanie wondered angrily. "She's your wife!"

"You're my wife!" he told her, his gaze piercing, those blue eyes cutting through her own, making them the only thing in the world she could see. She didn't understand him, she didn't get what he was saying at all.

"Chris, no, I'm not, she is."

"Not here, okay, this isn't our life, but we have to respect it, okay? We have to respect that fact that Chris and Stephanie here are married and they're happy despite the fact they haven't had sex because of Kolt. I don't care, this is their lives, and I'm not screwing it up for them."

"And if we never go back! We'll be stuck in a loveless marriage? Is that what you want for the rest of your life?"

"We'll get back home," Chris said, turning away from her. "We'll get back home and I'll see Jessica then."

"No, I want you to go see her," Stephanie said. "This may be someone else's life, but you have to make yourself happy too. So you go see her, and you go talk to her, find out what you can, that's what you do, Chris."

"And since when did you become the expert on parallel universes, huh? Since when do you always know what's right?" he challenged testily. "Look, I'm not here to have fun and games, I'm here because I want to take care of those kids and make sure that this life they've built up stays the way that they want it to. I'm not going to screw it up."

"Seeing Jessica isn't going to screw it up."

"When did you become her biggest fan? When you decided that you were going to champion for me to see her, huh? When you decided that you were going to seduce Paul away from Joanie?"

"That was uncalled for," Stephanie told him, her teeth gritted as she stared at him, tears making her eyes shine in the glow of the television, showing off their gray like stormy clouds on the horizon of a blue sea. "You have no right, _no right_, to say those kinds of things to me. How_ dare_ you! How fucking dare you!"

"Why, you know it's true!" Chris told her. "You know that it's all you can think about. You don't care about anything here!"

"I've been caring! I've taken care of those two kids, and I've pretended with you, I've done everything to make this marriage look real, and now you're standing here accusing me of this. Yes, when I first saw him, I wanted to take him away from Joanie, but this isn't our lives and I respected that! How dare you be sanctimonious to me! How dare you say those things when I've been trying so hard! I've been trying to help you, I thought you might want to see her, talk to her, reassure yourself that she is still out there! That's it! You think it was easy for me to suggest that to you, you think it was a walk in the park? Huh, do you!"

"What if I don't want to see her, you going to take that into account?"

"Why wouldn't you want to?"

"Because what good is it going to do?" Chris asked her, and she had no answer readily available for that.

"Were you…never-mind…"

"No, what, you've laid it all out there for me already, what were you going to say?"

"Nothing! Okay, fine, you don't want to see her, I'm not going to push you. I think you should though, she's your wife, maybe not on this plane of thinking, but somewhere, she is, and if for one second, you feel normal, then yes, I want you to have that."

Chris felt shamed now. Stephanie had been trying to help and he had accused her of ugly things, "I'm sorry."

"Whatever, do what you want, I just thought that you might want this, you've been with her for a long time."

"Stephanie…"

"No, don't worry about me," she said, dropping the paper on the couch. "I'm going to bed, see you when I see you."

Chris chased after her and grabbed her by the arm, making her look at him. "Stephanie, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have burst out at you like that. You were trying to help and I blew up in your face, and I'm sorry. I'm just scared to see Jess, that's all. I don't know how I'll feel about seeing her. Things are different here. She wanted me to give up wrestling, and I told her I was going to, and here, I'm back to myself, you know, and it's hard to balance wanting the wrestling part to wanting my wife back part. I'm sorry, I shouldn't be talking about her in front of you, you could care less."

"Its fine," she told him, and she was surprised by the honesty in her voice. "I just thought you might like that one second of normalcy. That's all."

"Okay then, I'll go see her."


	13. Chapter 13

"It's one day, Chris, you'll fly in there in a few hours, you'll fly out of there tomorrow morning."

Chris still didn't know why she had to push him to go see Jessica. If anything, he thought Stephanie would cling to Chris and insist he stay with her, but apparently she could suddenly handle two children by herself for an entire day. But of course she could, she was Stephanie McMahon, and she could do anything. That's what she was always telling everyone and he had no reason to doubt her in this world or the other one.

"If you're sure," Chris said as they stood in front of the airport. "I really don't have to go, I've told you my thoughts on this."

"And I've told you _my_ thoughts on this," she told him, "and I think that you should do this. We don't know if we're ever going to get home, Chris, and in case that happens, I think we should explore all our options."

"But these are our options," Chris said. "We stay married or we don't, Jessica and Paul aren't options. They're other people here, different people here. Our lives with them, in the other place, they were changed because of us, so they're not the same here."

"Doesn't matter," she said, shaking her head. "They're still who they are. So come on, go, make me happy with this, please?"

"I just don't have to, you know," he said to her. "I don't have to see her, I'm perfectly fine with not seeing her, perfectly fine."

"Look, just go, I've got to go pick up the kids from Shane's before Marissa goes crazy and her hair turns white. I promised I'd be there before lunchtime, and I don't want to break that promise, so go," she said, giving him a light shove. He took a few steps backwards and she made motions to get him to go. He finally turned around, walking toward the escalators that would take him up to the security checkpoint. He turned around to wave at her, but found that she was already gone.

He got on the plane reluctantly, hating that he was being forced to go see someone he had no desire seeing. He just didn't want to see Jessica's life right now. He didn't know how he was going to feel seeing her with a completely different life. Would he be happy to see her? Would he hate seeing what she had or didn't have? Would he be angry that he got stuck in this place with Stephanie and wasn't waking up to his wife who has so lovingly asked him to quit the job he loved? He didn't know the answers, and as they swirled in his brain as the plane took off, he found himself dozing into a fitful type of dream.

_Chris woke up and looked around, his eyes widening as he didn't recognize his surroundings. He looked to his right, and instead of the brunette hair that he usually saw when waking up, that soft, brown hair that shined in the morning light, he saw blonde, very blonde hair, almost like it was bleached, and Stephanie had never bleached her hair like that. He felt the woman move and run her hand across his bare stomach and he pushed it off of him and hopped out of bed._

"_Chris, what's the matter?" _

_Chris saw her head poke up from the pillows and his eyes almost bugged out of his head, "Jessica!"_

"_Sweetie, what's wrong, you look like you've seen a ghost."_

"_What are you doing here?"_

"_Sleeping with my husband, what does it look like I'm doing here?" Jessica asked with a laugh. "Did you have a nightmare or something, you're acting strange."_

"_Husband?" he muttered to himself. "I've got to go on a trip, I completely forgot I was supposed to…I need to go to my office, I have an office, right?"_

"_Yes, you do, man, what the hell did you dream of last night, it totally threw you for a loop," Jessica joked, but Chris was already in the hallway, searching all the door until he came to an office. He went inside and locked the door, sitting at his desk. His eyes fell on a wedding picture and he grabbed it frantically. His breath was stinted as he saw Jessica in the frame with him. He blinked a couple of times before throwing it onto the couch to the side, not wanting to look at it for a moment longer. He searched his desk frantically for any kind of date-book or anything. He found a black binder in a drawer and flipped through it hurriedly, looking for McMahon. He finally saw Stephanie's address, but no phone number. He gasped, how could he not have her phone number!_

_He grabbed his phone and immediately called information to connect him with the airport. He booked the flight without thinking, needing to see Stephanie this second. The next flight he could make was in a couple of hours and if he left now, he could be there in half an hour. He booked it and ran out of the office and back to the bedroom, where Jessica was still sitting on the bed. He grabbed the nearest suitcase he saw and started throwing clothes into it._

"_Where are you going?" Jessica asked, kneeling on the bed. "Chris, you can't just leave!"_

"_I've got to go, I need to go see someone, it's an emergency."_

"_Is it your parents?" she asked. "Did something happen, Chris?"_

"_No, not that, okay, not that!" he snapped at her. "Our anniversary, when is it?"_

"_You're scaring me now, Chris, please tell me what's going on?"_

"_Never fucking mind," he said, zipping up his suitcase. "I have to go somewhere, don't worry about me."_

"_Of course I'm going to worry about you, you're my husband!"_

_He detested that word and physically shuddered when she said it. He left the room, Jessica hopping off the bed and following him. She tried to grab his arm, but he was too quick for her. He finally looked at her. "Where's my laptop?" he ventured to guess that he would have one. Jessica pointed to one sitting on the countertop and he went to grab it, stuffing it in a nearby bag. _

"_Bye," he said, grabbing the keys, cell phone, and wallet sitting by the front door._

"_Chris, wait, is this because I asked you to give up wrestling, because if that's it, I'm sorry, you don't have to give it up, I swear, you can still wrestle, I won't hate you for it. Please, just stay, I'm sorry."_

"_Not wrestle?" Chris muttered under his breath. He couldn't even fathom the idea of giving up wrestling. He got into the car, leaving Jessica in the driveway, looking after him worriedly. She looked like she wanted to chase after the car, but she was still in her pajamas. Chris drove off towards the airport, knowing where it was since he had lived in Tampa when he was in WCW. _

_He looked at her house, seeing it sitting there, Chris was scared. He had only had time to read about himself while he was at the airport since he made it just before his flight. What he read had scared him. There was no mention of Stephanie in any of the things that he had read. He had married Jessica in July of 2000, and he had quit wrestling last year, taking an unknown time off. He was scared to find Stephanie in this world. By the looks of the house, it seemed like the type of place that one person would be uncomfortable, so he guessed she was married. Maybe part of him didn't want to look her up for fear of what he'd find. He certainly had the time after he landed, but he couldn't find it in himself to look, to see if she was happy here._

_He got out of the car and slowly made his way up the walkway, checking the number again to make sure he had the right house, which he did. He stood there for a few minutes, scared to ring the doorbell. This world was strange and in his franticness he hadn't even thought of anything except seeing Stephanie. He rang it eventually, mustering up his courage and waited, and waited, and waited for what seemed an eternity._

_The door creaked open and a red-rimmed-eyed Stephanie looked and gasped happily as she threw herself into Chris's arms, "Chris!"_

"_Baby, is that you?" Chris asked as he hugged her tightly. "You know who I am?"_

"_Yes," she said, pulling away and cupping his cheeks with her hands. "Where are we?"_

"_I don't know, baby, I don't know," Chris told her, kissing her forehead and then moving down to kiss her properly. "I don't know what's going on."_

"_I knew you would get here, somehow, I just knew that you would. I'm married to Paul, Chris, Paul Levesque, it's horrible, I managed to hold it in until he had to go out for something, but I couldn't hold it in any longer, I just, I didn't know what to do. He kept trying to kiss me and I kept trying to resist until finally I said I was going to take a shower and I stayed in there crying on the toilet. I don't know what's going on, I'm so scared."_

"_It's okay, baby, I'm here now, I'm here."_

"_I don't have our babies, Chris, I don't have them."_

_Chris's eyes welled up with tears, that was the one thing he had been hoping for the most. "I don't have them either, baby."_

"_You mean that my babies aren't here!" Stephanie sobbed as she collapsed into Chris's arms. "Oh God, Chris, what if they're back home and they're alone, nobody's going to find them, baby, nobody's going to think we aren't there. Harper and Kolt can't take care of themselves, they just can't!"_

"_I'm sure there's someone there, if this is one world, then the Chris and Stephanie of this world must be there, and they'll take care of our kids."_

"_But what if there's nobody, what if we're here and nobody's there, I want Harper and Kolt, I want them so bad," she said, clinging to her husband. "What are we going to do?"_

"_Shh, shh," Chris told her, running his hand over her hair and pushing her hair away from her face. "I'm here now, you're not alone, okay, you know I'd never leave you alone. You are _my _wife, I'm not going anywhere."_

"_I was so scared," she confessed. "I didn't even know if you'd know me, or love me, and I was so scared that I would be stuck here all by myself. I woke up and Paul was all over me, and I didn't know what was going on at all. I could only think about you, at first I thought I had slept with him and cheated on you, but then I saw the wedding ring and then the wedding picture and I almost threw up, I don't love him, I've never even been with him."_

"_I'm married to Jessica, you know, that old girlfriend I told you about, who I dated like two years before I even met you, it's strange, we're married too, and I quit wrestling!"_

_Stephanie's lip quivered. "What if we're stuck here? What if I never see Harper or Kolt again, what if I never see them?"_

"_We will, but we have to figure out what we're going to do here, we have to figure out what's going on."_

"_I don't want to stay here," Stephanie told him. "I'm not married to Paul, I'm married to you, and I don't give a shit what anyone in this world thinks. I just want you and my kids, but…"_

"_Do you and…uh, do you and Paul have kids?" Chris asked hesitantly. She may not have _their_ kids, but that didn't mean that she didn't have kids in this weird world._

"_No, I don't have any kids here, or at least…no, I would've heard them, uh…do you have…kids?"_

"_No, I don't have any kids," he told her, and she smiled, a relieved one as she leaned up to capture his lips in a kiss. Chris held her tightly, not letting go, so glad that she knew who he was and that they had kids and a life, a really good life somewhere over the stars. "God, I love you."_

"_I love you too," she sniffled. "I never want to wake up in bed with Paul again, he's so…I don't even like looking at him, and he was so annoying, you wouldn't even believe it, he was ordering me around to go pick up his dry cleaning and to make sure that I got his vitamins and stuff from the store, and my God, I don't know how Joanie deals with that, or I don't know, maybe Paul's better in our world."_

"_Apparently, Jessica was the one who asked me to quit wrestling for good, and I've been gone for over a year, it's strange, I didn't even love her when I was with her, and then suddenly I'm married to her, I wonder how the hell that happened."_

"_So we were never together here?"_

"_I have no idea," Chris said. "So we're both married, but we both don't have kids, right?"_

"_That's how it seems," Stephanie said. "Why?"_

"_Let's go."_

"_What?" she asked, her eyes widening a little bit. "Go where?"_

"_Who the hell cares? There's nothing tying us down to Paul or Jessica here, nothing. I love you here, and you're my wife, and I don't give a shit who knows that. I've got stuff in my car, you've got stuff here I'm assuming if you live here, so come on, pack a bag and let's go."_

"_Away, forever?"_

"_I'm not doing anything, I'm not a wrestler, and you can take time off, I'm not going to spend one day without you, wife or not, in this world you may not be mine, which is weird, but in our world, you're mine, and I'm yours, and nobody's taking that away from me."_

"_Okay," she nodded, kissing him quickly before turning around. "I'm packing!"_

Chris was jolted out of his slumber by the plane touching down in Duluth. He looked around sleepily, wondering about that dream. He had been thinking about this other Chris and Stephanie, if they existed. They had to be somewhere if this world had existed up until this point. They probably missed their kids, and hopefully they had found each other. He waited until the people had exited the plane in front of him before he exited himself, going down to get his rental car to drive to Jessica's home. He really didn't want to go there, though, and contemplated just waiting and going back to Stephanie and telling her that she had seen Jessica.

Yet, he was already here and it couldn't hurt to just go see her, maybe talk to her. He looked down at her address that he had written on a sheet of paper and got directions from the guy at the rental car counter. Before he knew it, he was on his way there, and he was nervously strumming his fingers on the steering wheel as he drove to this unknown destination. Jessica was probably going to think he was crazy for seeking her out when they hadn't really seen each other in something like twelve years in this world. Maybe she looked completely different and maybe he did too and she wouldn't even recognize him. He parked across the street from her house, reminiscent of his dream. He momentarily wondered if he saw her and she would be the Jessica from his world and she would know who he was, just who he was. That would create quite the dilemma.

The house was nice, modest, he guessed he could see Jessica living here. It was a little more rundown than her tastes dictated usually. He went up and rang the doorbell, adjusting his sunglasses nervously as he waited for some kind of life from beyond the door. It opened a second and then there she was. She looked a little fuller than she did usually, and her hair was more towards her natural color. She looked at him confusedly for a second.

"I'm sorry, I don't want to buy anything," she said warily.

"Actually, I'm not selling anything," he said, pushing his sunglasses onto the top of his head.

She squinted at him for a moment before recognition came over her face, "Chris Irvine?"

"Hey Jessica," he said good-naturedly.

"Oh my God," she said, laughing and shaking her head. "I haven't seen you in, God, it's almost been fifteen years or something, my God, what are you doing here?"

"I was in the area for business and I had heard through some friends that you were up here, and I thought I'd come visit an old friend, you know, if that's cool, I should've called probably."

"It's good to see you," she said. "I'm just…shocked, I haven't heard from you since we broke up. What have you been doing with yourself?"

"I'm still a wrestler," he told her, "pretty successful." He left out the part where he was the WWE champion.

"Wow, and here I thought you'd never make it," she laughed as something banged in the background. "Man, kids, I swear, come inside, the least I can do is get you a cup of coffee."

Chris stepped inside the house and realized that the reason Jessica had a fuller figure was probably because she had kids, that made sense. Jessica having kids only reminded him that the Jessica in his world had brought it up. How funny that in this world they both had kids. Oddly enough though, it didn't hurt to see her like this, not as much as he thought it would. He just felt more out of place than anything else.

"So you have kids?" Chris asked.

"Yeah, three actually," Jessica said. "Seven, five, and four."

"Oh wow, three, wow," Chris said, not believing that Jessica had three kids. "You and your husband must've been busy."

"Oh, no, my husband isn't the father of any of them," Jessica said, leading him into the kitchen where one of the younger children was sitting at the kitchen table playing with Play-Doh. "Samantha, this is an old friend of mine, Chris."

"Hi Chris," Samantha said.

"Why don't you go play with your brothers?" Jessica said, cleaning up the Play-Doh. "Okay?"

"Sure," she shrugged, hopping off the chair and going into the other room. "Her father was a one-night stand, oops, right? So, are you married?"

"Yeah, I've been married for the past seven years, you?"

"Two," she said. "I almost got married to my oldest son, Travis' father, but that didn't pan out. Then I met Calvin's father, and he was cool for a while and we had fun, but there was nothing long term about that one, and then with Samantha, like I said, one-night stand. Then I met Anthony, and he's been great, treats the kids like they're his own. Travis's father is still in his life, but Calvin and Samantha's dads took off, and why am I spilling this to you?"

"It's okay," he told her, secretly shocked by how her life had turned out.

"Do you have kids?"

"Two, a three-year-old, Harper, and a two-month-old, Kolt," Chris said, and he couldn't help the swelling of pride when he mentioned them.

"That's great, so you here on wrestling business?"

"Yeah, wrestling business," he parroted as she set the coffee down in front of him. "Stephanie, my wife, is actually a McMahon, and they own it, so I'm actually a part-owner of the company so I travel on business and stuff, let myself be the face of the company if they want."

"That's so cool," Jessica said. "I never should've doubted you when you said you were going to make it to the top. Look at you, at the top. I'm really glad you stopped by, I was getting a little bored with the kids, you know, they're all I do."

"Oh," Chris said, feeling just really uncomfortable around this Jessica. It wasn't his wife, it was nothing like his wife. "I can't stay long though, I've actually got a flight home tonight, I'm just here for the day."

"That's too bad," she said, licking her lips a little as she regarded him. "My husband is away on business too, and you know, I could definitely use the company."

Chris blinked and looked at her critically. Was she hitting on him? After they had each said they were married, and both with kids? Chris pursed his lips and set his coffee cup down, "You know, on second thought, if I leave now, I can get a earlier flight home, and I really miss my kids, they're everything to me."

Chris stood up and left hastily, with nary a goodbye for Jessica. This had been a terrible idea from Stephanie. He never should've listened to her when she said this would bring him any kind of comfort. This just made him feel strange and he didn't like that feeling at all. He got into his car and headed right back for the airport. That trip had been worthless, that hadn't been his Jessica, not even close and spending even five minutes with her seemed a laborious task. He just wanted to go back to the one person that knew what he was going through, and that was Stephanie.

At least this did one thing for him, it made him realize he'd rather stay in a loveless marriage with Stephanie than ever try to become Jessica's baby-daddy number four.


	14. Chapter 14

When he walked back into the house, Stephanie was coloring at the table with Harper while Kolt looked on, sucking his pacifier. She was surprised when she heard the lock turning and even more surprised when Chris walked in the door. She took a peek at the clock and saw that Chris was hours earlier than his scheduled flight. Chris dumped his bag on the ground and walked towards the kitchen where Stephanie and the kids were.

"Hi Daddy!" Harper said enthusiastically, having not seen him practically the entire day. She had missed him, and she stood on her chair so he could catch her as she jumped into his arms. Chris, not expecting this, caught hold of her just in time.

"Hey Harper," Chris said, kissing her cheek.

"What are you doing back so soon?" Stephanie asked.

"Well, it seems as if Jessica is a skank," Chris said plainly as he sat down in the seat that Harper had just been occupying. Harper sat in Chris's lap and went back to her coloring as Stephanie stopped and raised her eyebrows.

"A skank? How so?"

"Well, she has three kids by three different guys, none of which is her current husband," Chris told her. "One of her kids was from a one-night stand, she might not even have it right who the father is, that's my own guess, Jessica always was crazy when she was drunk."

"Wow, so look, you had a major influence on her life, that's something good," Stephanie pointed out. "With you in her life, you were like a guiding ship or something."

"Yeah, or she's been cheating on me all these years," Chris pointed the obvious. "That's all I've been thinking of on the drive to the airport, the flight home, and then the drive back here. If she's so…uh promiscuous here, who's to say that she isn't this way back home?"

"But she's with you back home." Stephanie pointed out. "You seem to have changed her, a little…"

"Now I'm wondering if I really have, I've never cheated on her and…sorry, you don't want to hear this," Chris said sheepishly. Stephanie looked down to the coloring book in front of her.

"It's okay," she said quietly.

Chris desperately wanted to change the subject now. "Why is Harper still up? It's almost 9:30."

"I wanted to wait for you, Daddy!" Harper chimed in. She turned to him. "Mommy said that I could try and stay up for you, but she said that you were going to be very late, but I didn't 'lieve her."

"Well you were right," he told her. "Are you all ready for bed?"

"Uh huh, I got my jammies on, and Mommy and I brushed our teeth, we're ready!" Harper said. "Tuck me in, Daddy?"

"Sure, I'll tuck you in," Chris said, lifting her over his shoulder. "You coming, Steph?"

"No, I'm just going to stay here, watch Kolt, color," she said, looking at him with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. The change of subject hadn't done anything for her, and he knew it, and she knew it too. She looked over at Kolt, who would not fall asleep and just sat there, sucking on his pacifier like nothing was wrong in the world.

She sat there, blankly, until Chris came back and she wasn't even aware of the time that passed, the absent strokes of the crayon in her hand over the picture of a castle with clouds surrounding it and a knight in armor riding his yet-to-be-colored-in horse. She was awakened from her stupor by the soft sounds of his chair scraping against the wood floor. She looked up at him lazily, as if just waking up, and he looked over to Kolt before looking over to her.

"This kid keeps weird hours," Chris pointed out.

"I know," she said. "He loves to stay up at night, and hates being up in the mornings, I guess he really is my kid."

"Mine too," he joked. "So it was weird seeing Jessica, weird and uncomfortable, I don't think it was such a good idea."

"I'm sorry I suggested it then."

"Don't be, I needed to hear it…or see it rather. I needed to see her life, and it was a shock, it must've felt the same way when you were with Paul and Joanie. I think I should've been a little more sensitive."

"Don't worry about it," she said, and he couldn't quite figure out why she was being so nice to him. "I still think you at least needed to see it. If anything, it really does show that you had a positive effect on her life."

"If you say so," he told her. "I don't see why you care though, I mean, you should be happy that I found out she was like she is so that I wouldn't have left you for her if she had been unattached."

"I never thought you were going to leave," she explained. "And why should I? You've always kept your word, for the most part, I had no reason to doubt that you would leave me here with the kids. I believed you would be back."

"I'm glad you believed that," he said. "Man, you should've seen me though, I probably looked terrified. She has three kids by three different guys, and then she tried to hit on me!"

"Are you serious?" Stephanie scoffed. "And she knew you were married in this world?"

"I told her, yeah, and she said that her husband was away on business and she could use the company tonight, and her kids were in the next room," Chris told her and he had to start laughing at that, and Stephanie laughed too, and for the first time, genuinely, he felt totally at ease with Stephanie. "Hey, you guys ate dinner?"

"Yeah, we ate, I made some chicken and stuff, I…uh…kept a plate for you, if you wanted, I didn't know if you were going to pick something up or--"

"I'm starving," he interrupted, and she smiled again, glad that she was being productive.

She stood up and walked further into the kitchen, going to the fridge and plucking out a plate before heading over to the microwave, talking the whole time. "I found this great little store around the corner, and bought some stuff, it's not like conglomerate chain or anything, and I decided that living off of take-out, and then leftovers of take-out wasn't all that great."

"Good idea," he said, never having seen Stephanie act so domesticated before. She pulled his plate from the microwave and came over and set it down in front of him.

"I figured that since we seem to be here for a while, we could have a system, like we could alternate making dinner, taking care of the kids and what not, just that we have a system. And then you know, we're going to be traveling again tomorrow to Raw, and I know what I'm going to do there, but are you even in wrestling shape? You haven't wrestled in a long time."

"I'm fine, I've kept up my workout schedule."

She studied him for a few moments, and he was wondering if she was appraising whether his statement had been true or not before she spoke again, "You mentioned that Jessica wanted you to quit wrestling."

"Yeah, so?" he said, digging into the food in front of him with a vigor, and it wasn't just because he was hungry. Stuffing his face full of food would quiet her questions for the time-being, or at least he could hope that it would, but this was Stephanie, and she had the tendency to be relentless.

"Why?"

"Why does it matter now?" he asked back. "We're not together here, and I'm still a wrestler, champion even, how much do you think that's due to me being married to you."

"Don't joke," she said, but he caught the hint of a smile behind her stern words. "I'm just wondering why someone who claims to love you would want you to quit the one thing that you've been doing for half your life almost."

"Because she loves me," Chris told her. "In my world, she loves me, and that's what you do for people you care about, you tell them that you'll do things for them, or you compromise with them. You're telling me that you've never compromised with Paul in your life?"

"Of course I have, but never with the big things, never anything having to do with wrestling," she told him. "Yes, there's compromise, but there's also keeping true to yourself, I figured you of all people would know that."

"Look, I'm doing this because she's my wife, and she enjoys acting like a regular couple. We're not like you and Paul, we didn't travel together. She wanted to be a normal couple, and I told her we could do that, because she has sacrificed so much for me, and I've never sacrificed anything for her."

"You've never sacrificed anything for her?" Stephanie said, trying to keep her voice in check. She didn't exactly love his tone right now, and she felt like they were two seconds away from blowing up at one another.

"No, I haven't, I've never done something just for her, I've never given up anything for her."

Stephanie got up from the table and picked up Kolt, "I'm going to go watch television, enjoy your dinner."

"What's up, Stephanie?" Chris asked, taking one last bite of his meal before abandoning it to go sit next to Stephanie. "Why are you so bothered by this?"

"Because if she loved you, she never would make you give up the thing you love most in the world! Because if you love someone, you let them do the things they want to do, that's just being a good person!"

"Stephanie, she has sat back and watched me for years travel around, you have no idea how hard that is on a marriage," Chris told her.

"Well excuse me, I would never make you quit wrestling, ever!" she shouted. "I would never take that away from you. I would never let you…I would never let you do something you didn't want to do. I wouldn't…"

Stephanie bit her lip and looked at Kolt, who seemed to be settling down. He must be used to this, his mother's irate voice. Maybe the Stephanie he knew was a little bit on the temperamental side too. Chris stared at her, wondering where this outburst had come from. He didn't see why this particular issue would make Stephanie so impassioned. He reached out to touch her knee and she physically recoiled at his touch.

"Don't touch me," she snapped at him. "Just don't touch me at all."

"Stephanie, what I do in my life is my business," he told her gently. "Jess is my wife, and she has done a lot for me, and I felt like this was something that I could for her in return. You have to understand that…it doesn't even matter now, it's a moot point in this world. You're my wife in this world, and I'm a wrestler, and I'm definitely in ring shape. Maybe you can just like, schedule a tag-team match for me or something, so I won't have to do the entire match by myself."

"Yeah, that could work," she said, realizing that Kolt was now asleep. That's all the little kid seemed to do. "I'm going to put him to bed, stick a movie in or something, I'm not really tired."

"What movie?"

"Whichever, nothing gross though," she told him as she walked up the short flight of stairs to the landing where the stairs going to the second floor were. He watched her disappear down the hallway, and felt compelled to follow her. He got up, intending to pick out a movie, but instead found that he was heading towards the staircase, like he was floating. And if this world had actual floating abilities, he might really not want to go home.

Her voice was distinctive, even if it was the only voice in the house. It was still uniquely hers, kind of screechy, but kind underneath it all. He leaned against the wall right outside the nursery. He wondered if he had painted the nursery the color it was right now, or if he had hired someone to do it. He wondered if Stephanie had picked out the furniture, if they were extremely happy for another baby.

"You look like your daddy, not the guy you see now, but the guy who's probably worried about you somewhere over the rainbow," Stephanie giggled as she leaned on Kolt's crib. "I wish I could tell him and your mommy that we're taking good care of you, no starvation or diaper rash, I'd consider that a victory. I bet they're worried though, and I bet they miss you, little guy, you're very missable. But don't worry, as long as I'm here, I'll make sure you're doing just fine."

Chris wondered if she thought about the other Chris and Stephanie as often as he did. He worried that they were terrified for their children, hoping that they knew that they were being taken care of just fine. It must be a horrible thought not knowing where your kids were. He hoped never to find that out.

"Yeah, you do look like your daddy though, blond hair, and then those eyes, and you're going to be handsome. I'm sorry you had to hear that fighting earlier, it's something that this Chris and I do. It's very complicated, you wouldn't understand. I've made sacrifices in my day, too many to tell you right now. But sometimes sacrifices turn into regrets, and I think that Chris is going to regret leaving wrestling, maybe he has other regrets, I don't know…why am I worrying you about it? Go to sleep, little guy, I'll see you in a few hours."

Stephanie walked out of the room and almost ran right into Chris, jumping a little as she was being startled. "Sorry."

"God, how long have you been standing there? _Why_ are you standing there?" she asked accusingly, as if he was doing something wrong, and technically speaking, this was his home.

"I just wanted to see if you were doing okay with him…you're great with him," Chris told her sincerely. "A natural even."

"Motherly instincts kicking in," she laughed.

"Why don't you and Paul have kids?" Chris asked, and then felt stupid for asking a question like that. It wasn't any of his business. "Sorry again, that's a personal question."

"Whatever," Stephanie said. "What have I got to lose now? He's a million miles away, maybe a galaxy or five hundred away. Paul and I just…I don't think that we're kid people."

"You seem pretty kid people right now, with Harper, with Kolt."

"That's out of necessity," Stephanie said, shaking her head. "I'm a mother to them because I have to be, I've been pulled into this situation and I do what any McMahon would do under the circumstances, I've adapted. It just so happens that adapting is being a mother to them."

"I don't think so," he told her. "I think there's something that makes you want to mother something. I don't think it's just instinct. You're really good with these kids, I just wonder why you haven't tried to have any with Paul."

"How do you know we haven't tried?" she countered.

"True, I don't."

"Look, when you have kids, I think you really have to want kids, and I'm not sure I really want to have kids," she looked around, anywhere but at him. "Sometimes you find that person you want to have kids with, the one you think that you'll be great with, a team, and I just don't feel like Paul and I would make a good team."

"Did you ever have anyone in mind for a teammate?"

"Why don't you and Jessica have kids? Obviously in this world, she's not against the idea."

"She wants them, she wanted to start trying," Chris said.

"Another sacrifice?"

"I never said I didn't want them too," Chris answered defensively. "I said that kids might be a nice idea. And they might be…if you find that right person."

"And she's it, congratulations," Stephanie said, walking past. Chris reached out to touch her shoulder and she paused. "What, more questions?"

"No," he said, walking ahead a few steps until they were face to face. He looked at her critically, memorizing her face. She looked bored, like she'd rather be anywhere but here. But really, where was here? Like she said, they were a million miles away from home. He hated this tension between them, knowing they didn't belong in this world, didn't belong together. What he wouldn't give to just make this entire thing easy. He stepped closer to her.

"What are you doing?" she breathed, her breath slow.

"I'm about to kiss you."

"Why?"

"Because that's what husbands do to their wives." Stephanie watched him lean ever closer and at the last moment, she pulled away, turning and shooting a look at him over her shoulder as she walked to her bedroom, throwing one comment at him before shutting the door.

"Then go find your wife…because I'm not her."


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: Thank you SO much for all the reviews, I'm glad they're starting to pick up for this story. I really enjoyed writing it so I would hope people are enjoying reading it and still, it would be really appreciated if you just sent a short review telling me what you think, or a long review, either way, I'll be grateful. Enjoy! :)

* * *

"Steph, I'm sorry, please come out of there."

"Leave me alone, Chris," she said from behind the closed door.

"Stephanie, please, I'm really, really sorry, just don't lock yourself up in there. I'm stupid. I shouldn't have done that, I'm sorry, I just got caught up in the moment. I mean, it's hard when the person you're married to is gone, or a million miles away, you understand that, right…right?" he pleaded with her as he sat there, on the floor outside her room, his back against the door.

He didn't know why he had told Stephanie he wanted to kiss her. It wasn't like he really wanted to kiss her anyways, not really. This world was starting to get to him, that was all. This world was starting to ingratiate itself into his head. It was worming its way in, sucking the other life out of him. It was so hard not to fall into this routine because his normal routine was lost forever to the wind. But he still had to remind himself that this wasn't his life, and no matter how many times he might think he could live here, he had to realize, this here he was in, wasn't the here he was used to.

The doorknob started to turn slowly and Chris pulled away before he tumbled into the room. Stephanie stuck her head out and saw him sitting there. He gave her a tentative smile, and she gave him a lopsided smile back, opening the door all the way. Chris patted the carpet next to him, and she stepped out into the hallway and then closed the door behind her, crouching to sit next to him.

"Again, I'm sorry," he repeated. "I just think that I'm getting a little stir crazy here."

"It's okay, you didn't actually like grab me and ravish me or anything," she said, trying to make a joke. "You're probably still reeling a little bit from the whole Jessica thing, so I don't entirely blame you for what you said."

"Yeah, seeing her…like that, it was just a shock to the system. I mean, technically, she's my wife, you know, but she's not the Jessica that I know, and I don't know, with Harper and Kolt, it's easy to forget this isn't my life."

"They're great though, aren't they?" Stephanie said, looking off to the rooms where they were sleeping. "I can only hope that if I ever have kids they can be like those two. They're really good babies."

"Great genes," Chris joked. "You know, we keep going and doing and acting like we're this family, and we hardly have time to think of why we're here. Maybe we were sent here to do something, save the world or something."

"Save the world?" she asked amusedly. "You think that we're here to save the world? Last time I checked, I didn't have a super power."

"Like, maybe us together, maybe by being together, we save the world, you know, the ripple effect, one thing is different and that means the entire course of history is different, maybe Harper goes on to be the ruler of the galaxy or something," Chris told her, and she laughed, and he was happy to hear that the awkwardness from earlier had seemed to disappear. "Or Kolt can be President, or something, I don't know, just something that means we're supposed to be together."

"Or maybe we have to bridge a gap or something. We don't know the intricacies of this Chris and Stephanie's relationship, they could've been having real problems that nobody knew about, and we're here to solve them."

"I don't think that's it," Chris interrupted.

She looked over at him curiously, folding her arms in front of herself. "Why do you think that?"

"I don't know, I just look around and I don't see that. I don't get the feeling that they were upset, or in a bad marriage, do you get that feeling when you're around here? Do you see anything that would suggest that they were unhappy?"

"You've got a point," she nodded. "What do you think they're like, I mean, really, really like?"

"I had a dream about them, about what it would be like for them to wake up in our world."

"You did? And? What was it like?" she fired off question after question at him.

"I think they found a way to be together. I think they loved each other so much they found a way to be together. They seem happy here, settled, I look around and I see a life, you know, like a real life, family, proverbial white picket fence, and if they loved each other that much, I think they're together, worried about their kids, but ultimately together."

"Do you think she's nicer than me?"

"Heck yeah," he told her, then bumped shoulders with her. "Come on, Stephanie, you know that she's probably nicer than you. I just can't imagine you being the full-time mom like she seems to be doing. I don't think that's your style."

"It isn't, but…I don't know, you know, I bet they are together right now. Maybe they said Paul and Jessica be damned and they're going to live their own life. I know that they know their kids are taken care of though, I'd hate for them to be worried sick over it."

"Yeah…"

They stayed silent for a few minutes, thinking about the lives that they had stepped into unwillingly. Stephanie stole a glance over at Chris and wondered if the Chris in this world was nicer than this Chris, less cocky, less…apt to do or say things that were hurtful to other people. She bet that the other Chris was more patient, and maybe that would make him more handsome, not on the outside, but on the inside. Then again, she didn't know this Chris well enough anymore to be the judge of that.

"Do you want to grab a beer?" Stephanie asked.

"Yeah, sure," he said, standing up and offering her his hand. She took it gratefully and let him pull her to her feet. She dusted her butt off and they walked together into the kitchen, neither one realizing they were still holding hands.

Stephanie grabbed a couple of beers from the fridge and nodded towards the balcony and Chris went to open the door. The night was cool, but Chris and Stephanie were both wearing a lot of layers as it was, so they didn't need to grab their coats. They each took a beer and a seat, looking out onto the vast New York skyline. Stephanie popped open her beer and took a long swig of it, delighting the bubbles traveling down her throat. She tipped her head back and looked up to where the lights didn't quite reach.

"What're you looking at?" Chris asked.

"The stars," she said, looking over at him, then ducking her head. "I mean, you can hardly see them out here. It's pretty cool that we have such a great view of New York though, don't you think?"

"They have great taste."

"I wonder why they would want to live out here, in New York, you know, the hustle and bustle."

"I don't know, what would you picture them in?"

"A house in the suburbs, closer to my parents, maybe, where the kids could run around all they wanted, have a dog or something, lots of grass. The air would be a lot cleaner, not so many lights, or cars, or horns honking, or traffic, or millions of people, or tourists."

"Wow, someone has really high expectations," Chris joked and she gave him a playful, dirty look. "I like that though, some place where you can see the stars, right?"

"I don't look at the stars that much," she told him pointedly. "I mean, they're there and whatever, you know, Christmas is coming up pretty quickly here, what if we're stuck here until then?"

"Then we have a happy holidays?"

"No joking, Chris, do we just go about our business?"

"I guess so," he said, wondering why she was being purposefully evasive with her conversations. "I figure that we just have to wait it out. We can't be here for too long, usually these weird out-of-body experiences only last for like a week. They have sanctions, you know, they have to get the next people who get to travel to mysterious worlds ready, and they can't have us languishing around."

"You're just tempting fate."

"If fate had this in store for me, traveling to other dimensions like I'm in some real-life Star Trek, then fate can go shove it where the sun don't shine because this is just fucked up. You don't go through life thinking you're going to be transported anywhere."

She shrugged and took another sip of her beer. "We could be here forever. Oh man, what are we going to do if we're here forever?"

"A life of celibacy?"

"They say joking just covers up the real problem," she countered.

"Then I'm not going to last. I don't know what we're going to do, Stephanie, and you don't either. We're just going to go through the motions."

"And when we get back to our world? What then?"

"We _never_ tell anyone what happened to us? I value my freedom, and I don't want to go to the loony bin because people will totally think that we're crazy if we ever tell anyone. We'll just chalk it up to a weird, extended dream."

"Do you think we'll miss Harper and Kolt when we go back?"

"Why do you ask hard questions?"

"Because I'm a hard person."

"I think we'll miss them, yeah, but you can have kids with Paul and I can have them with Jessica, or you know, maybe she'll have one with a one-night stand, I don't know," he said, and he was enjoying this conversation with her. It was wavering between deep and funny, and yet still managed to stay away from the really deep conversations he knew they probably needed to have at some point. She laughed a little and he was happy he could do that for her. "I think I'll miss them, it's hard not to get attached."

"Especially when you see yourself in them," Stephanie added. "Yesterday, I was walking past Harper's room, and she was trying to imitate me, or her mommy, you know, act all business-like, and my God, it reminded me of when I was little, and all I wanted to do was be just like my daddy, and I would follow him around. It was weird."

"Yeah, I mean, these aren't _our_ kids, but they're our kids, they're still a part of us, even though we didn't have them together," he said. "Kolt has my smile, and man, seeing someone have the same smile as you do, it's eerie."

"She has your smile too," she told him. "I look at her smiling, and it's you, it's totally you, and when we go back to our real lives, I'm going to see that smile all the time. They shouldn't give you such hard lives to live."

"I know what you mean," he responded, taking a long swig of beer. "Like how can you just forget you've seen what your children will look like, and then just have them taken away? If I'm falling for anything here, it's those two kids."

"Me too," she lamented. "I don't know why it's so easy to get attached to this world when I know rationally none of this is mine. None of this is mine, right Chris? I'm not going to wake up tomorrow and think this is really my life, right?"

"No," he said, standing up and going over to the balcony. He leaned over and looked down, far, far down to the lights on the street, the headlights from the cars illuminating the street like a pathway. He could see the bright lights streaming from Times Square, and then Broadway. It was all so bright and achingly familiar. His stomach tightened at that feeling of familiarity, because he knew just where it was stemming from, and it scared him that this feeling was creeping back into his stomach after he had pushed it back for so long, years… "This isn't our real life."

"Yeah, I just have to keep reminding myself of that, I can't forget Paul or anything in my other life, the second I forget is when I'm in trouble."

He chuckled at that, but didn't answer as he looked upwards, to where Stephanie had been looking earlier. The sky, the vast blackness that could even overshadow New York City. It was the blanket over the world, dotted with little holes they called stars, burning hotly and brightly at some other point in the galaxy, and beyond that, other galaxies, nebulae, the universe. He made note of a few of the constellations, Andromeda, Pegasus, the Phoenix, and sighed. There was always something so comforting about the night sky, a stillness to it, like you could go up there and you could be still too, and nothing would change, and everything would just stand still, time, everything, and you would be the same.

"What're you looking at?" Stephanie asked, posing the same question to him as he had posed to her just a short time ago. He looked back at her for a moment, then back out into the night. His face was obscured by darkness, but it was easy to see the wistfulness on his face, and she almost regretted asking the question in the first place. Maybe he was thinking of some romantic moment with his Jessica.

"Sky," he answered, much like she had. "It's just nice, you know, to look out into the sky every now and again."

"Oh."

"I find myself looking at it a lot," he confessed to her, but didn't look at her. She felt like she should say something, ask something to break the moment, but she didn't have the words right now, maybe the cold was rendering her dumb. "It's just peaceful, I like looking at them…do you…look at them a lot?" He waited for an answer, but when he didn't get an answer after a few minutes, he looked behind him.

She was gone.


	16. Chapter 16

"Do you think that we have everything we need, I've never traveled with a baby before, or a child, yeah, I'm pretty much in the dark here."

"I think we brought everything he owns, we'll probably be good as long as we have food and diapers, that's all he does anyways, besides sleep."

"He's a baby, it's allowed," Stephanie said. "Are you sure that you're okay to go tonight? I'm sure I can come up with some bogus thing. You could just do a promo or something, I mean, I don't know, you haven't been in a ring."

"I'll be fine, I swear."

"Okay, I was just trying to help," she told him, sounding slightly defensive. He felt bad for that, had felt guilty for the past couple of days since…the incident. He couldn't even quantify it with a name right now. It was just "the incident."

"Yeah, I know you were trying to help, I'm sorry that I snapped at you," he apologized. She looked over at him quickly before going back to check the diaper bag, making sure she had everything that a baby could possibly need on a trip.

"It's fine," she told him, though they both knew it wasn't fine.

He didn't know what had possessed him to try and kiss her. He was trying to figure it out, pinpoint the feeling that had come over him when he had looked at her, but he hadn't found it out yet. He had just been overwhelmed with something that urged him to seize her lips. But he shouldn't have thought that and he certainly shouldn't have wanted it. Technically, they were married to other people and just because they were in this world didn't really make her his wife.

There was just so much that he needed to say to Stephanie, but didn't know or couldn't find the right words to articulate himself. It was one of the most frustrating things in this world, not being able to really talk to her. If she had been this world's Stephanie, maybe he could tell her because this world's Stephanie loved this world's Chris. But the Stephanie he knew, she hated him, deep down where she kept it hidden, and she had been unabashedly hating him for quite some time, so the words that he needed to say just wouldn't come out, and he thought they should.

"Don't stare, Chris, I'm not a painting," Stephanie told him as she caught him staring at her, his eyes boring into her like he wanted to see her insides. "I'm ready to go, so let's go before we miss our flight. Thank goodness I looked up the show again or we'd have tickets to the wrong place and not to Philadelphia, right?" she said, trying to joke, anything to get his stare away from her. It was making her increasingly uncomfortable.

"Yeah, that's right," he told her, gathering the suitcases and things while she went to retrieve Harper, who was saying goodbye to everything in her room. They rode down the elevator and got into the limo waiting to take them to the airport. Stephanie spent most of her car ride at the window with Harper, pointing out the different landmarks, big and small, for Harper to see.

Chris sighed, knowing that he was putting a strain on the only relationship that was real in his life right now. Everyone else was a carbon copy of someone he knew back home, only with slight changes. But Stephanie, she was the one person who was the person he knew, and it was comforting and she was slipping away from him. He didn't want that to happen because if she left him, then he would be all alone in this world. He definitely didn't want to go back to Jessica, she was a skank in this world, and he didn't want to be with a skank, even if it was his wife in another world.

"Stephanie, I'm really sorry about what happened the other night," the words came tumbling out before he could catch them. He gave a worried glance over to her, but she was silent. She was also staring straight ahead now, which indicated to him that she was listening, albeit reluctantly, but she was still listening to him. "I shouldn't have done it, and I'm sorry."

"Why are you bringing this up now?" she asked.

"Because I don't want to lose you."

"What are you talking about, I'm not even yours to lose."

"No, it's not that, not like that…" he struggled for the words, willing them to come so he wouldn't be so tongue-twisted around her. "In this world, you're the only thing that makes sense to me, you're the only thing that's normal, and even though we haven't…we don't get along, you're familiar, and you're a link to someplace that I can't be right now. You're my lifeline, Stephanie, and I know you probably hate to hear it, but you are. I don't want to lose you, or I risk losing everything I thought I knew. I tried to kiss you because…because I don't know what I'm doing here, and I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing, but I thought, maybe if I link myself to the one person who understands, it won't hurt so bad."

Stephanie, for her part, listened to his whole rant. She stared straight ahead still, and Chris feared that he had only made it worse. She looked over at him finally though and her look softened. "It's just as hard on me, Chris, understand that. I don't know anything either, but we have to remember ourselves and remember who we are. Nothing can start between us, nothing…I wouldn't allow it."

"I completely understand," he said, but his voice sounded, not doubtful, but wary of agreeing with what she said.

"We have to live by both sets of rules," she told him. "I don't want to get confused. I don't want to blur that line, it can't be blurred, Chris, do you understand?"

"No blurring, I get it," he told her. "It was a moment of weakness, just…don't leave me, okay?"

"I wouldn't, trust me," she said, patting his hand a little. He looked down at her hand as she touched him, and seeing this, Stephanie pulled away, tucking it back into her own lap. "I'm here with you as long as they dictate."

"Who's they?"

"Whoever is finding this the funniest prank in the world," Stephanie joked as they started getting closer to the airport. "Because I know someone is watching this and laughing their asses off. I just don't see how they can't. It's like some cruel joke or something. I'm glad my life is a joke to someone, makes it all too real."

"Yeah, we're just a joke," Chris said, glancing out the window as the familiar sight of a plane taking off greeted him.

There was always something when you were in the air, in this tiny capsule of an airplane. It was like the world stretched forever, and you were able to see it, be above it. It was no different now, here. He half expected that when they got above the clouds, the sky would be green or something, just to tell him that this wasn't his world, just a small reminder that he wasn't this guy. But then he looked over and saw Stephanie, not Jessica with her head leaning against the window. She had to be tired, since Kolt would wake up at unusual times during the night, and Stephanie wasn't accustomed to getting up with a two-month-old.

"Daddy?" Harper asked from the seat.

Chris adjusted Kolt in his arms to look at Harper. "Yeah?"

"Do I have to wrestle?" she asked innocently and he laughed at the question.

"Do you want to wrestle?" he asked her.

She shrugged. "I could be your partner, Daddy, if you want. Because you showed me how to do a clothesline, and Uncle Shane showed me how to do a headlock, so I can wrestle."

"Really?" Chris asked, getting a small taste of the things that his other self did with his daughter. He could tell that the other Chris adored his little girl, especially judging from the sheer volume of pictures he had of her in his wallet, every pose under the sun was in there.

"Uh huh," she nodded seriously. "I want to wrestle like you, Daddy, and you said that I can be Harper Jericho, right, Daddy?"

"Right," he told her. "You're going to be the best, you and Kolt."

"Okay, Daddy," she said, going back to the picture book that she had been looking at. Chris smiled and impulsively leaned down to kiss her head, causing her to turn up to him and grin widely, showing off her baby teeth. He couldn't believe that Stephanie, the woman who hated his guts in his life, and himself could make something like this. It almost seemed surreal and he knew back in their world, something like this, someone like her, would never have even a chance to exist, not with the scourge Stephanie had towards him.

It was sad really, to think that someone wouldn't ever exist in the world that you knew, the timeframe being the first of the reasons. He would've had to travel back in time for this to even happen, for her to happen, for Kolt to happen. He was getting too attached, too much into their lives. If only he had realized how bad it would get once he was around everyone that he knew.

It was going to get really bad.

"Oh my God!" Ashley said as she rushed over with Trish. "Chris, is this Kolt?"

Chris was taken aback by the sheer vigor with which they had rushed over. "Yeah, this is him."

"He is even cuter than you described!" Trish said, gushing over the baby. "Oh man, where's Stephanie, I want to talk to her."

Chris was even more taken aback by this. In his world, Trish and Stephanie were nothing but acquaintances, but then maybe she just wanted to know so she could ask her a question about something. "Oh, did you need…something?"

"No, I just haven't seen her in a long time, wanted to catch up."

Well, this was something new. "She's with Harper setting up Kolt's things, I just wanted to show him off, take him around, introduce him to everyone."

Trish laughed, "He's darling, Chris, really, he's just about the cutest thing. No wonder you've been gushing about him for weeks, I would be too."

"Yeah, weeks," he said, wondering just how proud the other Chris was of his kids. Stephanie turned the corner up in front of him, and she saw him. She froze for a moment, as if she didn't know exactly what to do, but then walked over, her hand firmly latched with Harper's as the little girl skipped along next to her. "There's Stephanie now."

Trish turned and grinned, "Stephanie Irvine, get your butt over here. You look great for only having a kid two months ago, seriously, it looks like you've lost all the baby weight."

Maybe because she had never even been pregnant, she thought to herself as she walked over, knowing she had to put on a show, "Hey Trish, yeah, I've been working out, I want to look great for my husband, right?"

"Oh, totally," she winked. "It's important to look good all the time. But you really do look great."

"Yes Snookums, you look good enough to eat," Chris said lecherously, playing along with this elaborate game. Stephanie's eyes widened as she regarded him, and he had that mischievous smile of his and she gave him a short, dirty look before turning to the two women in front of her.

"Don't listen to him, he's a jerk," Stephanie said, glancing over at Chris, telling him that if he was going to dish it, she was going to dish it right back. "Don't be mean to me, sugar pie, that's not how I like it."

"Oh, don't worry Snookums, I'll make note of that."

"You two are crazy, I feel bad for your kids now," Trish said. "Well, I've got to run, after Chris's segment, I've got a match."

"Segment?" Chris questioned.

"Yeah, you're up first, um…" Stephanie stepped closer to him, "Remember, you're starting a new feud soon with Edge, so you should probably get out there, or over at the gorilla, and you're sure that you remember everything?"

"Yeah, I studied the last month of shows, I think I'm going to be okay out there," he told her, though he was a little bit nervous. He hadn't been in front of the crowd in a long time, he hadn't wrestled in over a year.

"What about your match later though?" Stephanie asked, obviously concerned. "You haven't been in a ring for a really long time, Chris, I'm really worried about what might happen to you out there. Are you sure that you can go?"

"I don't know, honestly," Chris said. "I haven't really conditioned myself, but I have to, right, I think I'll do fine, just…trust me, okay?"

"I don't want you to get hurt," she told him, and off his look said, "Don't look at me like that, of course I'm going to be concerned about you, Chris, you're my only lifeline too, remember?"

He couldn't help but soften his look right then. He heard a production assistant saying that he was up next, and he handed over Kolt to Stephanie. She stood there, one kid by her side, another in her arms, and she mouthed "good luck" to him as he went to what felt like his doom. But he had done this a thousand times, being in front of the crowd didn't bother him. What bothered him was the fact that he had no real idea about what was going on this show. But he was Chris Jericho now, taking on the persona that felt like a second skin, and Chris Jericho never got nervous.

Stephanie took Harper and Kolt over to the gorilla area to watch Chris's segment. Harper leaned her head against Stephanie's leg, getting a little tired since it was past her bedtime at nine o'clock, but she hadn't wanted to go to sleep before seeing her daddy talk in front of all those people. So she was valiantly trying to keep her eyes open even though the fabric of her mother's pants was so soft. Kolt, on the other hand, was wide awake, since he loved to keep weird hours. Stephanie could feel Harper's head keep falling against her leg and she reached down to stroke her hair a little.

"Why don't we go take a nap, Harp?" Stephanie asked the little girl.

"I want to see Daddy," she insisted through her sleep-muddled voice. "Please…"

"Okay, but as soon as we see Daddy, we're going to go to sleep, okay, is that a deal?"

"Mmhmm," she mumbled, her eyes snapping open as she tried to stay awake.

She heard footsteps behind her, but ignored them for the most part until the voice that was attached to the footsteps spoke, "Hey, you and your kids are blocking the entire view."

Stephanie slowly turned around, being mindful of the sleepy girl attached to her and smiled at Paul. But this smile was wistful, it was just so weird, standing here with two little people that were supposed to be her children while she stood across from the man she knew as her husband. There was a great, gaping canyon between the two of them, and only she knew about it.

"Yeah, well, we own the place, so we're allowed."

"Great comeback," he said light-heartedly before looking at her kid. "Wow, so that's him, huh? The way that Chris made him out to be, I thought he'd be covered in gold or something."

"He does love his kids," she said detachedly, not thinking about Chris as a father.

"Yeah, he adores them, he's lucky though," Paul said, walking closer to her. Stephanie's breath stunted a little bit from the nearness of him. If she thought real hard, maybe she could pretend that this was their son he was shaking hands with. She could pretend that this was their life and she was happy with him and they could be a family. She could imagine it, let it be her life, and let it all be real and not think about what the reality of the situation was. "Hey there Kolt, that's a really cool name."

"He thinks so too," she said, and the pretending was getting easier. "He likes you."

"I do make a good first impression."

"That you do," she let slip out, looking at him adoringly almost. Paul was paying too much attention to Kolt to notice.

"I'm a nice guy, it's what we do," he shrugged. "He really is gorgeous, Stephanie, you're really lucky to have him. He seems like he's going to be a good kid, great wrestler, if he isn't going to be running the joint, I'm sure you'll have him doing both."

"Maybe," she told him, and she was just so happy to be near him, to smell the scent of his cologne.

"Stephanie, is that your baby?"

And then the illusion was ruined. Joanie stepped up to Hunter and wrapped her arms around his waist, and Stephanie couldn't help but think how she didn't fit against Paul like she did, or she couldn't rest her head against his shoulder like she could, and Joanie didn't need to feel protected in her arms like she needed to on the nights when the past would come rushing by her and she could do nothing but revel in the hurt of the past. No, Joanie didn't fit with Paul, and she hated that she didn't fit in with Paul in the world.

"He's really adorable, Steph," Joanie commented, and Stephanie put on her best smile.

"Thanks…Joanie," she said hesitantly, forcing herself not to stare at the way Paul had intertwined their fingers.

"Are you going to be bringing him every week?"

"That's the plan," Stephanie said, wondering if somehow Joanie was jealous of her, if she could turn that into something. She had children in this world, maybe she could rub it in her face or something. But what good would that do. She could tell that this Paul loved Joanie, maybe her own Paul still harbored feelings for her too and she was too stupid to notice.

"Cool, he'll love the business," Joanie said and Paul laughed, "What, he will?"

"He's a baby, I don't think he loves anything except sleeping and eating," Paul said.

"Is this the way you're going to act if we ever have one?" she asked.

"Yeah, it is, _if_ we ever have one," he told her, kissing her gently.

It made Stephanie's heart ache the tiniest bit. It was like torture, this standing here, two kids on her person, watching as her husband kissed this other woman. This was pure hell, and she didn't know what she had done to deserve it. She stood there, staring at them as they kept kissing, whispering stupid words to each other and completely forgetting her presence. She wanted to cry, but wouldn't allow whoever was pulling this joke on her the satisfaction of seeing her break. She would stay strong.

Chris came back then, having finished his promo. Everyone had been cheering for him, and he had missed that. He hadn't known how much he missed it until they first chant of his name started. How could he willingly give that up? The moment that he stepped out there, the adrenaline flowed through him like water, and he was basking in it all. This was what he was born to do, and when he was out there, it felt so good, he hadn't felt that kind of feeling in over a year, but he was completely jazzed up now.

"Hey Steph, that was amazing!" he said excitedly, not noticing at first what she was doing. But when she didn't answer, he looked at her and saw what she was looking at. He froze a little, taken aback by the scene in front of him. This was definitely something he wasn't used to seeing, and it looked like Stephanie wasn't used to it either. He took Kolt from her gently and wrapped his arm around Stephanie's waist, leading her and Harper away from the scene. He took them back to his dressing room, putting Kolt into his carrier and helping Harper settle herself on the couch as he draped a blanket over her and turned off all the lights save for the one desk lamp that was on the desk Stephanie used. She sat there, staring off into space as Chris went about taking care of the kids. After he was through, he went and knelt in front of her, placing his hands tentatively on her knees.

"Hey, you want to talk about it?"

"It's just something that you don't expect to see," Stephanie said. "Your husband willingly and happily kissing another woman. It really makes me question whether or not he loves me in our life. If he's so happy with Joanie right now, and judging by that, they're so happy, what if he's just wasting his time with me in our life."

"Hey, hey, hey now, don't think about that. Things are different here, this doesn't affect our lives back home."

"But it could, I stole him away from her, you know? I practically seduced him away from her, except without the sex," she told him. "She probably deserved him and I just took it away. Maybe I'm here to figure out why I'm such a bitch."

"You're not a bitch, Stephanie, trust me, you're not. It's just weird to see is all. You'll make it through this," he told her, reaching up to cup her cheek a little. "Look at me…come on, look at me."

Stephanie looked down at him, "What?"

"What happens here is not what happens to us in our lives, okay. I'm not going to go home and divorce Jess because she has a bunch of kids and you're not going to divorce Paul because he's married to someone else here."

"Okay, you're right…"

"I might divorce her because I've changed my mind about wrestling though…"

"What?" she inquired curiously, her attention diverted away from the situation with Paul.

"I couldn't do it," Chris said. "I can't, when we get back home, I can't leave, I'm going to come back. I love this too much, everything about this place, I love it and I need it back in my life. I know that I promised her that I would leave it all, but being out there, feeling the rush, knowing that those people love me, holding the title, I can't leave that behind, not for one person."

"You're going to come back?"

"Yeah, I am, I have to, I just…I have to."

"Oh my God, that's great news, we really need you!" she said, throwing herself into a hug with him. Chris hugged her back tightly, impulsively. She was happy for him, she wanted him to wrestle, and that was a good feeling. It was good seeing that someone wanted him to be happy, and the fact that it was Stephanie was just incredible to him.

She pulled away, a great big grin on her face that went from ear to ear. She looked up at him, and it was like the air got thicker between the two of them, and definitely hotter. They couldn't tear their eyes away from each other. Chris reached forward to trace his thumb across her bottom lip before cupping her cheek. She unconsciously leaned her face into his hand as his rough, callused finger traced her chin. There were no words between them, they didn't need them, just touches and caresses as he studied her beautiful face, the way her nose was just the tiniest bit crooked, or how her eyes were gray like a foggy morning, or the way her chin had the cute dimple. He was taking it all in like it was the first time, like the first time he had ever seen her face. She was breathing heavily now, and it was making her chest rise and fall in rhythm to his pounding heart.

He started to lean forward ever so slightly, not wanting to scare her, or God forbid, ruin the moment. He kept leaning until he was so close it was like he was breathing in her air, and her air was sweet and sticky like a hot, humid summer night where you just wanted to lay out on the grass and be a nothing in a world that was so large. His lips were brushing against hers, just a slight brush, barely even touching, but then she pulled away and he was too slow to see the pain so obvious in her eyes. Then she said the two words that cut through him, the magnitude reaching further than this moment.

"I can't…"


	17. Chapter 17

A/N:  The poem is by Keats, which is public domain I believe.  I liked it and thought it appropriate for the story.  Enjoy and leave a review. :)

* * *

_Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art—_

_Not in the lone splendor hung aloft the night_

_And watching, with eternal lids apart, _

_Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite, _

_The moving waters at their priestlike task_

_Of pure ablution round earth's human shores, _

_Or gazing on the new soft fallen mask_

_Of snow upon the mountains and the moors—_

_No—yet still steadfast, still unchangeable, _

_Pillowed upon my fair love's ripening breast, _

_To feel forever its soft fall and swell, _

_Awake forever in a sweet unrest, _

_Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath, _

_And so live ever—or else swoon to death._

_-"Bright Star" by John Keats_

She had slept in the other room the night before, and maybe it was because she didn't trust him to not do anything. But the sting of rejection was too deep that he wouldn't have tried anything anyways. He knew when he wasn't wanted and he hadn't been wanted earlier. She had pulled away and he had been foolish for thinking that there could be something between them. There could never be anything between them.

She attributed it to the proximity with which they had to work with one another, and he didn't have the strength in him to argue. He had blamed it on the fact that his newly rediscovered passion for wrestling had struck him so hard he needed to follow up that feeling with another, and she had been there, and he had been there. She then went on to blame it on seeing Paul and Joanie kissing and the bitterness that flitted through her stomach at the sight. Neither one of them blamed each other, but neither one of them saw the truth either…

They were becoming too comfortable in this life.

They were becoming too attached, too much this Chris and Stephanie that they were starting to lose a little bit of the people that they used to be. It was easy to pretend, to act for the people in front of them, let them think they were this extremely happy couple. Behind closed doors they were two very confused people with no path or direction, no real life here. These weren't their kids, this wasn't their marriage, and yet they were forced to play this game, to let their pieces move silently across the board, like a real life game of LIFE; it was their lives now, letting the little pegs into the cars with them, riding silently on the board game of their new lives.

He could hear her soft snoring from the other room. There were two beds in there, she was occupying one, Harper the other, and Kolt's crib was sitting in here with him, girls and boys separated like some sort of strange summer camp. Kolt had woken up a short time ago, and Chris had gotten to him before Stephanie even had the chance to open her eyes. The only caveat to being the only one to hear the baby was he was the only one awake now. He was the only one to think and lie here, hearing Stephanie breathe. She would mutter something every once in a while, and he wondered how he would ever get to sleep now. He chuckled as that thought had brought a sense of déjà vu to him.

He closed his eyes and listened to her loud breathing, letting the sound be the only one he heard. He would figured things out later, or maybe he would wake up and she would be gone, and Jessica would be beside him again, and he could forget this whole nightmarish episode. But things never worked out that way, and he knew he'd be up in a few hours, hearing the high-pitched cry from Kolt. In times like these, when your mind is still working hard, when your body has decided that it's easy to fall into a fitful slumber, as Chris was just embarking.

"_Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!"_

"_Yes, yes, yes, yes?" Stephanie asked with smile as she looked over at Harper, who was standing on the couch, leaning against the back of it as she watched Stephanie in the kitchen. "When is Daddy getting back?"_

"_He should be here shortly, Harp," Stephanie said as she threw a couple of rolls into the oven to warm up. "I'm making dinner for all of us right now."_

"_Did you want him to go back to work, Mommy?" Harper asked._

"_Of course I did, I want Daddy to be able to do what he did before Kolt came along. And then when Kolt gets old enough, and the doctor says it's okay, we're going to go back on the road like we were before, and you have to remember that Daddy is only doing Raw for right now, he's not on the house show schedule."_

"_Because you're the boss, Mommy," Harper said matter-of-factly._

"_Yes, I'm the boss," she said, trying to act stern, but her face crumbling into a smile when she looked at Harper. "Daddy is needed here too, that's why he's not on the house show schedule. He wants to be around us, mostly me though."_

"_No!" Harper protested. "Daddy wants to see me!"_

"_I don't think so," she shook her head. "You're just here, Daddy comes to see me because he loves me best."_

"_Uh uh, Mommy! Daddy loves me!" she argued, folding her arms in front of her. Stephanie saw Chris sneaking through the door and he winked at her as he laughed silently at Harper's last statement._

"_Yeah, well, I love Daddy more than you do, so there," she said, sticking her tongue out at her._

"_No you don't!" Harper pouted. "I love Daddy more than you do!"_

"_Whoa, whoa, whoa, are you guys fighting over _me_?" Chris asked, setting his bags down. "There's enough of me to go around. I think both my girls should be able to love me."_

"_Daddy!" Harper yelled, going to the edge of the couch and leaping into his arms. He caught her just in time, stumbling back a little bit. "I missed you," she said forcefully, just like Stephanie. "Did you miss me?"_

"_Nope," Chris said, kissing her forehead. "How could I when Mommy let you call me all the time? I didn't miss Mommy either."_

_Harper giggled and hugged him around the neck, burying her head into his side, letting herself cuddle with her daddy. Chris walked into the kitchen and kissed Stephanie hello, and she smiled as he pulled away, popping a carrot from the salad into his mouth._

"_Oh honey, you cooked, how domestic of you," Chris teased. _

"_I have a few tricks still in these sleeves," she told him._

"_Where's my son?"  
_

"_Your son is sleeping, he's a night owl that one is. He's sleeping now, so that when we want to go to bed later, he'll be refreshed and ready to keep us up. He's vindictive, he's conniving, he's such a McMahon it's not even funny," she told him._

"_Well, as long as dinner's ready and he's sleeping, I guess we can eat, right, you hungry Princess?"_

"_Yup," Harper said, reaching for her chair, which had a booster seat attached to it so she could reach the table. Chris put her into her seat and she sat there patiently as he sat next to her. Stephanie brought the food to the table and sat down herself. Chris reached for her hand and held it in his for a moment, rubbing his thumb against her knuckles._

_He leaned closer to her while Harper shoveled food into her mouth. "I love you."_

"_You say that every day, come up with a new line, Irvine."_

"_Um…I'm happy that you had my kids? That work for you?" he asked._

"_Better, we'll work on it, and I happen to care about you and love you as well," she said before pulling her hand away to start eating._

Chris woke up the next morning, but not to Kolt's crying. It was more to Stephanie's murmuring. He opened his eyes slightly and saw her standing on the balcony just outside his room. She was feeding a bottle to Kolt, and he remembered her in this position. She liked to sit outside. Something about being able to be free or something like that. He turned on his side and laid there, watching her. He couldn't hear what she was saying, but he just took her in, the way that the light bounced off her shiny hair, or the way she would laugh randomly, or the smile that came over her face.

He took a shallow breath and turned on his back, staring back up at the ceiling. He had to stop these thoughts of Stephanie that kept burning themselves into his brain. He had to stop them from overcoming him. If he let them overwhelm him, he was going to fall in love with a woman that he couldn't possibly ever be with. Stephanie would never let that fly. She'd never accept him into her life, this he already knew. It was a lesson that stung him, but he knew that the only way he would be able to survive was to know that Stephanie could never be his.

"You're up," she said as she walked back in the room. "You were out pretty deep. Kolt was crying and you were sleeping, so I came to take care of him. It's still early, but our flight is early, so if you want to get up and get ready."

"Yeah, I'll do that," he told her and their conversation had become stilted overnight, and he hated it. Yet, he needed to let it be this way, needed to keep her at a distance. The closeness they were forced to share and the family they were supposed to be was taking its toll on his psyche. He wavered between a world he knew and a world that intrigued him. This was the only way he could live, to keep her at a distance, always at a distance.

She had noticed he had been distant all day, but she chalked that up to what happened the previous evening. She let him be silent on the ride to the airport, on the flight home, and the rest of the day. She gently told Harper that Daddy needed to think about work so she shouldn't bother him, and even though the little girl was dismayed by this, she had kept her distance from Chris as well.

"Will you tell Daddy night for me?" Harper said as she burrowed deeper and deeper into her covers.

"I sure will," she said, kissing Harper's forehead. "Now you sleep tight and have great dreams okay, of cotton candy and princesses."

"Okay, Mommy," she giggled as Stephanie got up and went to turn on her nightlight before closing the door halfway. She passed by Kolt's room and peeked her head inside, seeing that he was asleep too. Glad for that, she walked back downstairs, where Chris was outside on the balcony, leaning against the railing and staring out. It reminded her of a few nights ago, and she felt compelled to give him some sort of companionship, just a little bit because he seemed so lost standing there, alone.

She sat down and watched him, not knowing if he even knew she was there. He was staring so intensely up at the sky, she even wondered if he could feel the chill in the air. She yawned and leaned her cheek on her hand that was on the arm of the chair. She stared at him, taking him in, the lights from the city illuminating him, making him almost seem to glow. She didn't try to speak, just wanted him to feel her presence there.

"They're exactly the same," he told her.

"Hmm?" she asked.

"The stars, they're exactly the same as home, the constellations are the same, I recognize them, it's all the same. It's our world, it's all the same stars," he explained, his voice a pained whisper.

"You always did say whenever you look up, the stars will always be the same," she said sadly. "And they are, they've always been the same, every single time I look up, you were right…no surprise there."

"Do you…do you look at them often?"

"No," she said, knowing what he was implying. "I try to avoid it. Someone once told me that whenever I missed him…or whenever we got separated, if I missed him, I could just look up at the stars and know that he was looking up at the same stars and they'd always be the same."

"Sounds like a smart guy," he said lightly.

"He used to tell me a lot of things," she said, her voice tinged with disappointment and heartache. "He used to say that I was the kind of woman that men fought wars over…I still think that was the most beautiful thing anyone has ever told me."

"Anything else that stuck out in your mind?" he asked, still not turning towards her. If he turned towards her though, he would see that her eyes were glassy with tears still unshed, and quivering lips that wanted to sob, but held them at bay.

"He would call me every night before he went to bed to ward off the bad spirits and nightmares. He would tell me that hearing my voice would only bring good dreams, and I'd ask him about the dreams he didn't remember, and you know what he told me?"

"The dreams you don't remember are the dreams that come true," Chris finished for her. She nodded, though he still wasn't looking at her. She kept nodding, letting the words sink into her very core, where they had been sitting and festering for a long time now.

She took a slow, shaky breath, one to compose herself. "Yeah, that's exactly it."

"And what happened?"

"July 25, 1998 happened," Stephanie said sadly. "It's so funny, you know, in this world, that's when they got engaged." She started to cry here. "Can you believe that? That's where this world went. That's where it all changed, and we're being punished."

"You honestly believe that?"

"Yes," she told him. "I honestly believe that. I believe we're being punished for something that we did. But this is definitely punishment. This is someone saying, 'Look Stephanie, look at it all, look at what could've been, but you know what, this is only temporary, because you don't have any of this.' So yeah, I do think I'm being punished, Chris, I think I'm in some sort of personal hell, that's what I think this is."

"So being with me is hell?" Chris asked bitterly.

"Yes, yes it is, knowing that the day we broke up in our lives is the day that we got engaged in this one, yes, this _is_ hell on Earth, or wherever we are, wherever this place is, it's hell…they got engaged, and we broke up, simple as that," she said. "And we moved on, and we can't ever revert back to what we had, I won't allow it. I won't allow myself that…so just…go away…"

"Why? Why won't you allow it? Are you happy with him, Steph? Are you happy with Paul?"

"That's none of your business," she said coldly. "That is _my_ personal business, not yours."

"It's a simple question, Steph, a simple question, are you happy with him? Is he the guy that you are supposed to be with? Do you believe that?" he asked, and it was maddening how he wouldn't even look at her. It was unnerving her that he could have this kind of conversation with her without actually talking to her.

"That is none of your fucking business!" she yelled at him, standing up. "Get off your high horse, thinking that you know what's right for me, Chris. If you had known what was right for me, we'd still be together. I'm leaving, do whatever the hell you want."

Chris finally turned to her, catching up to her in a couple steps before grabbing her arm and turning her around. "Are you happy with him!"

"It is none of your…business," she said through gritted teeth as she wrenched herself from his grip. "This is just punishment, Chris, that's all it is, and when we're done, we'll have paid those dues. I'm being punished, that's it. I've done something horribly wrong, and I'm being punished. You know, I thought I was being punished in our regular lives, but no, now I know that was a blessing, and this is true punishment."

"Stephanie, look at this life," he told her.

"No," she said, the first of her tears starting to fall. "No, I'm not going to look at this life. I'm not going to remember this life. This is the life that I was denied, and I'm not going to think that this is anything…I will not let myself fall for you again. I won't, so don't think it's going to happen, Chris."

"Why not, Steph?" he pleaded. "Why can't it? Maybe this is the second chance, maybe we're getting a second chance? And if we don't take it, then what are we left with here?"

"No," she said, shaking her head violently. "No! I can't do this! I can't be with you, and I can't think about this life and how it changed. I haven't looked at the stars for a long time, Chris, because I knew that I'd be the only one looking. You wouldn't be out there, missing me…"

"How do you know that? How do you know that every night I wouldn't stare at them and hope that you were staring too, that we were looking at the same star, that we were feeling the same kind of loneliness?"

"Because…get away from me," she yelled, breaking down. "Get away from me! Leave me alone, Chris, God, do you know how hard this is for me! Do you know what being here is doing to me!"

"Why can't we do it all again!" he asked, almost on his knees begging as he tried to get her to look him in the eyes.

"Because you cheated on me!"


	18. Chapter 18

A/N: Glad you're enjoying this, please leave reviews!

* * *

And there it was.

The elephant in the room had finally been captured, identified, tagged, and sent back into the wild to be monitored carefully and painstakingly. Stephanie had laid it all out there, and it was the truth. She had been living this lie, this punishment as best as she knew how, but she had kept herself guarded from him. She could promise she'd stick it out with him, but she would not let herself fall into that trap again. She wouldn't let herself get that deep, because she knew how deep she could and would fall, and the climb back up had been torturous.

She remembered that day, so long ago, and she still felt the hurt that crept into her that day and never fully left. It had settled into a part of her heart, the words a bitter reminder of what she had lost. She still didn't know what she had done to drive him to another woman, if she could've somehow prevented it. She wrestled with that thought as surely as Chris had wrestled in the ring. It didn't get easier, but she had finally let go of not knowing, she had moved on, but that didn't erase the hurt from her chest.

It still lingered there, like the sweet smell of perfume, or that crisp air on an autumn day. So this was definitely torture for her. This life that she could've had, these kids that could've been hers; it was hell as surely as it was heaven for the Stephanie who really got it all. She had never atoned for her sins, and it was like the powers that be had done the one thing that would make her pay for all the bad in her life, they would give her what she couldn't have, let her touch that which she would never get, love those she would never get to love in her own life.

In her real life, she got to see Chris and Jessica. That was her reality, and that's why she was clinging to it so very hard, because she needed to let go. "You cheated on me," she repeated brokenly.

"Stephanie…" His voice was soft, but she wasn't having it.

"No!" she yelled, standing up, her voice rising and then floating off into the cacophony of New York City. Hers wouldn't be the only yelled words that night, and that was a comfort. "Don't you even suggest that it's in the past and we get to relive anything! No, I'm not doing this again!"

"But…Stephanie, please, just listen to me."

"I'm tired of listening to you, Chris, I'm tired of everything having to do with you. Don't you get what you've done to me…don't you get what this life is doing to me!" she screamed, her cheeks stained with tears, and if Chris could just reach out, he could trace those tears. "You cheated on me! You cheated on me and I can't forget that, I haven't forgotten it."

"I just--"

"No," she sobbed, collapsing brokenly into her chair. "You told me you cheated on me, and do you know what that did to me, do you know how much that hurt me? I was devastated, and then I see you a couple weeks later with…Jessica, and then…you married her…you married the woman that you cheated on me with, as if it wasn't bad enough to know that you cheated…you married her!" Stephanie shook her head. "I had to hear it from Adam…he didn't…nobody knew…"

"Nobody knew what, Stephanie?" he asked quietly, turning to watch her while leaning on the balcony. He wanted so badly to reach out to her, to take her in his arms and make her believe in this life, believe that this was a second chance for them. He was holding onto so much hurt as well, but he was willing to let it go to get this second chance.

"Nobody knew about us, how much it hurt to hear about you. Adam went around telling people how hot your girlfriend was, and I had to hear that," she explained. "It killed me that you could…no, I'm sorry, there wasn't any getting over me, you were still with me when you were with her. And as if that wasn't bad enough, you had to come to the WWF, you had to come here with her on your arm, did you think that wouldn't kill me, Chris?"

"I didn't…I thought that you were over--"

"Over you?" she asked, and he nodded slowly. "I cried myself to sleep that night when you debuted. I still remember it. I had tried to isolate myself from everything having to do with you. And then one night, I'm told the big surprise was here, and I hear the music, and the words Jericho, and I knew it was you. You didn't even have the decency to tell me you were coming to my family's business. Did you plan that all along, Chris? You were going to dump me and then join?"

"No, Stephanie, it wasn't like that at all…"

"Then, I go to the gorilla, and she's there, and you go back and you hug her and kiss her because she's so happy for you. And I cried myself to sleep that night, and I'm right to the point where I can look at you and her and not feel like my heart is being ripped out, so I can't do this, Chris, I can't do this second chance thing."

"Stephanie, just hear me out…"

"Stop!" she told him, shaking her head almost violently, her hair fanning out around her face. "Stop it, Chris, I'm tired of it, you made your choice. You made your choice eight years ago, you wanted her, and you didn't want me, and that's fine, that's great, you live with that. You cheated on me, and I don't get over things like that so easily."

Stephanie stood up and went into the penthouse. She needed to get away from Chris because she felt like she couldn't breathe. Bringing up the memories of what had happened were opening wounds that she thought had been healed, but were opening now, and causing her unwanted pain. She had made her choice too, she had chosen Paul, and he was good to her, he loved her, and she could live with him for the rest of her life. He distracted her from that day, July 25, 1998, and all the subsequent days of heartache that she had endured.

They had been lying in bed, her and Chris, and she had been smiling at him, but he was frowning, and she reached out to touch his face, softly, gently like she was used to doing in the morning. But the frown grew deeper as he recoiled from her touch. She had been confused, bewildered by his behavior. She had leaned up on her elbow to ask what the matter was when he had uttered those fateful words, the ones that tore her heart out. He had cheated on her, and he was leaving her for the other woman. She had been confused at first, unbelieving, but as he got out of bed, dressed, and packed, she had seen what was happening in sickening slow motion. She knelt on the bed and asked him why, but he hadn't answered her properly, just saying that they were better off.

How ironic that in this world, it was the day they had gotten engaged.

Chris flew in after her, and grabbed her arm. "Stephanie, wait, you don't know the whole story."

"What do you mean I don't know the whole story?" she asked, not facing him. "We were together, I loved you, you cheated on me, you left, you chose Jessica over me. What, you think I was going to forget that you chose her?"

"No, I didn't choose her," he told her.

"Yes you did!" Stephanie said through gritted teeth. "You fucked me, you fucked her, and you decided hell, she's the better one in bed, I'll just continue to fuck her and drop the brunette, screw the fact that she loves me, screw the fact that she wanted to spend forever with me, I'll just kick her to the curb, then I'll fucking rub it in her face the next time I fucking see her!"

"I didn't rub it in your face," he told her, as calmly as he could.

"Oh yeah right," she scoffed. "You came into my father's company with her on your arm, and you fucking showed her off, and that's fine, Chris, I moved on, but I'm not doing this with you again."

"I didn't cheat on you, goddammit!" Chris told her, and she turned abruptly to look at him. His face was red with anger and she narrowed her eyes at him. He blew some of the hair out of his face and let go of her arm, staggering backwards a little like he couldn't believe he had made that statement.

"Now you're _lying_ to me!" she accused.

"No, I lied to you then…I lied to you then," he said, defeated. "I didn't cheat on you. I didn't start seeing Jessica until a couple weeks after we broke up. It wasn't even meant to be anything. You knew we had dated before us…and I just ran into her and it was comfortable because there was no getting to know you part of the equation, she was convenient."

"What…why would you…why," she was so confused, she struggled to find the words. "Why would you tell me you cheated on me?"

"Because I knew it was the only way that you would hate me. If I told you anything else and broke up with you, I'd fall back into you because I loved you so much, Stephanie, more than anything, so I had to make you hate me, and betraying you would do just that."

Stephanie's anger was rising and her eyes were flashing like thunder on a dark night. She couldn't believe the nerve of him, "You let me believe that you had cheated on me with Jessica for eight years! How could you do that! How could you be so cruel to me, I thought you loved me, I thought that we were in love, how could you make me…how could you tear me apart like that!"

"Because you didn't want my baby!" he shouted, his emotions finally getting the better of him. It was something that he had kept bottled inside for the past eight years, something he didn't want to go back to, but he had to. If she was going to accuse him of cheating, he had to get it out in the open that he had never cheated on her.

Stephanie sighed, "Chris, I wasn't pregnant, you know that."

"Yeah, but we thought you were," Chris said. "And you know what, I wanted that baby when I thought you were pregnant. I know that you were freaking out, I know that you were scared, but I wanted that kid with you. I was excited."

"You were?" she asked, wondering why she had never seen that. She thought back to when they had their pregnancy scare, right before their breakup. She had been late and she had told Chris, and she thought he felt the same way she did when they found out she wasn't pregnant, relief, but now he was saying he wasn't relieved.

"Yes!" he exclaimed. "I thought that it would solidify us, I thought that I would finally stop being your dirty, little secret and maybe be someone you could be with forever. But then when we found out you weren't, the first thing you said was that you were so relieved that you didn't have to tell your parents about me, like you were ashamed of me. Do you know how that feels, Steph, to have someone be ashamed of you like that? I introduced you to _my_ parents, I told them about you, and you couldn't even give the same courtesy to me. No, I had to be kept a secret from them. I thought…maybe if we had a baby, you could tell them, and I could join the WWF, and we'd be good, but you didn't even want them to know."

"Chris, you were in WCW…"

"You knew that my contract was ending soon! You knew I wanted to talk to your father!" he told her. "You knew all this, but still, the first thing you thought was that you didn't have to tell your parents about me!"

"I never wanted to hide! I was thinking of your fucking job! I didn't want you to lose your job with WCW, and if my father found out about us from someone else, if he knew that you were screwing around with me, if God forbid, you had gotten me pregnant without putting a ring on my finger, he would've ruined you! He would've never hired you, you never would be where you are! I was only thinking of you!"

"Oh, that sounds so nice and quaint, you really think that your father would be so dense as to hate me because of what company I worked for? Come on, Stephanie, even you can't be that stupid."

"Well, I did believe that you cheated on me for eight years, so what do I know, right?" she snapped. "Excuse me for thinking of you…"

Chris ran a hand through his hair. "Stephanie, I loved you so much, I wanted to be with you so bad, and it killed _me_ that you didn't feel the same, not enough to want to be seen in public with me."

"It was never like that, Chris, it was never like that," she said softly.

It was sad, they both realized, how they had let a lack of communication and lies ruin what they had. They had been usually open with each other, but then when the storms hit, their ship broke and they were left drifting in two different destinations. Yet, here they were, meeting again, a life built around them that was, as they now came to see, really supposed to be theirs. There was no cheating, there was no malice in secrecy, there was just lies torn down, and ruins left crumbling around them, until they found this life which should've been theirs…could've been theirs.

Chris reached out, taking a step closer to her, resting his hand on her cheek, finally wiping the tears from them, blurring the tracks of her tears until they dried on his hand. "Steph…why can't we…"

"You have Jessica," Stephanie interrupted. "And I have Paul. We may not have them here, with us, now, but they're still who we're married to, other world or not. We both made our choices, Chris, we both made our choices, and we have to live with those choices."

"Just tell me…are you happy with him?"

"Yes," she answered honestly. "He loves me, and that's the most I could hope for. He takes care of me, and he's there for me."

"Do you love him?" Chris asked. "Really love him?"

"Sometimes…sometimes you have to settle," she replied. "Sometimes you have to settle for second best, but that doesn't mean you can't be happy. Am I in love with him in the way that I should be? Probably not, but he's there, and he tries to make me happy, and for that, I'm grateful."

"I'm not happy," Chris said to her. "I mean, Jess is a good person, she's sweet and everything, but she's trying to change me, bit by bit, and I can't live with that. Going out there Monday and doing my thing, she wants me to leave that, and I can't…and I realized, I'm not happy with her, not when she's trying to change me."

"I'm sorry for you then," she told him.

"So why can't we just…forget them for a while?" he pleaded, his eyes widening in hopefulness.

"Because of our past. Chris, you should've told me you would've been happy if I was pregnant, you should've told me the truth. Maybe this Stephanie did, maybe this Stephanie introduced you to my parents, maybe it was all different, but that's their choices, not ours. Our choices led us in different directions, and we have to respect those directions."

"And if I don't want to?"

"You know, for the longest time, whenever you had Jessica backstage with you, I wanted to rip her hair out, or at least kick her. But then I wanted to know what she had that I didn't," Stephanie said. "I wanted to know why she was able to have you, and what I did that was so wrong to make you choose her over me. Those feelings of inadequacy, they don't just go away because you tell me that you didn't cheat on me. The fact remains you chose her over me. When you came into the WWF, you knew I was there, you knew who I was, I never lied about my identity or kept the fact that Vince McMahon was my father under wraps. Yet you still chose to be with her, and disregard me."

"It wasn't like that, Stephanie, I hadn't seen you in over a year, I mean, things change, I thought maybe you…you thought I cheated on you, you would've hated me, I knew this…"

"But you could've told me the truth, a year's worth of hurt is nothing compared to eight years worth of it. I could barely look at the sky, you know that, because I would picture you saying the same words you said to me to Jessica, and you don't get over that, no matter what the truth is. You don't just get to come into my life and declare the truth and then just get to think that I'll automatically let you back into my heart, Chris. It doesn't work that way."

"I know," he said somberly. "I know this…"

"I never would've lied to you like that," Stephanie said. "I never would've made you think something like that. You will never know the pain that brought me, the tears I cried or the nights I spent awake, hoping you'd magically show up in bed next me. You'll never know…"

"I know," he repeated. "I want to make it better though, tell me how I can make this better."

"You can't, don't you get it, Chris, don't you get that our lives have already played out, and this," she gestured around the room, "is just the punishment we get. It's the powers that be testing us, punishing us and making us atone for whatever bad we've done. This is what it is. It's not a sign that we should get back together, it's punishment. It's everything that we could've had, and the moment we accept it and the moment I give in, it's the moment that we go back to everything, I'm sure of it. Because that's how punishment works, you get to the very worst it can possibly get, and then it's over. I'll fall for you, and then it's over, and you're back with Jessica, and I'm back with Paul, and you'll choose her again. This is all circumstance. You don't want me."

"You don't know that."

"You didn't want me eight years ago, you don't want me now."

"Stephanie, I _want_ to fix this, tell me how to fix this?"

"Find a way to get me back to the man that truly loves me…that's how you can fix this."


	19. Chapter 19

Chris was restless later that night, and he had every reason to be. He and Stephanie had finally laid everything out there, and then let everything go to hell as a result. It had been difficult for him, he had finally admitted the secret he had been carrying with him for a long time. Two secrets actually, if he thought about it long enough. He had finally told her that he hadn't cheated on her, and he didn't know what he was thinking there. Like that was going to make the last eight years just poof into thin air, like everything was fine and better, and they could have the perfect life. He had been delusional if for one second he even thought that. Then he also revealed that he wanted to have a baby with her, and that was probably the deeper secret.

He didn't want Stephanie looking like she had done something wrong in their relationship. He loved her so much back then, he loved her so much he didn't want her to take the blame for everything so he made sure that she didn't. He knew that his supposed cheating on her had hurt her, but he didn't think that she would blame herself so much as she would blame him and that's what he wanted. But both confessions had backfired on him.

She loved Hunter…no wait, she was happy with him; that was a big difference to him. Being in love with someone and being happy with someone were totally different concepts. She hadn't explicitly said that she was in love with him, but she might as well have because it was still something she felt that she needed to cling to. He didn't want her to cling to it though, he would much rather she embrace this life and give him a second chance that he didn't fully deserve. That's why he didn't go off on her, yell, scream, beg, threaten to throw her off the building or throw himself off the building. He didn't deserve that second chance and he didn't deserve her love anymore.

He leaned back in the comfy leather chair in his office and swung the chair around and around, spinning until he became slightly dizzy, letting this heady feeling take away anything that Stephanie had thrown at him earlier. He was bored sitting here, but he knew that lying in bed, staring at the ceiling or watching television would do nothing to help his distraction. So he was going to sit here and stew and wonder how he ended up here, and not only that, but how he had gotten to this point with Stephanie, where he knew nothing about her at this moment and still knew her inside and out where it mattered.

He pulled open the drawers to the desk, hoping to find something to occupy his time. Anything at this point would be better than just sitting there and thinking about Stephanie. This was what he did when she came into his mind. He had gotten good at this. For the first year or so after he had broken up with Stephanie he had become an expert at distracting himself from thinking about her and their relationship. He could revert back to that, regress in a way, he could survive this like he had survived that, and he would, he would just do what he did back then.

He looked to the left bottom drawer and shuffled through some papers when his hand his something at the very bottom. He pulled the papers away from it and looked at a photo album. The top had a piece of masking tape strung across it diagonally with his own writing scrawled on it, "Confidential," which only served to pique his interest. He couldn't imagine that a photo album of his would be confidential, who would he want to keep out? Would he want to keep out Stephanie? But why would he want to keep her out of something?

Then it dawned on him, in a blaze of glory. Maybe he and Stephanie weren't here to see the lives they could've had, maybe that wasn't it at all. Maybe it was to bridge some sort of gap. Maybe Chris and Stephanie of this world weren't happy at all. Maybe there was only a façade there and they were really unhappy. The only thing he could think of when it came to pictures that Stephanie shouldn't see was pictures of a girl or girls that Chris could've been sleeping with. It was entirely possible and it almost made sense. They had a purpose here, to make things better between this Chris and Stephanie. This Chris must've been having an affair and he had to rectify that. Images floated through his mind, images that elicited what it must've really been like for them, what could've happened to them if he hadn't stepped into this Chris's life.

"_What the hell is this!" Stephanie's voice rang out into the silence of the room._

"_What?" Chris asked, looking up at her as she held something in her left hand. It was above her head so he couldn't quite get a good angle at it and he looked at her and shrugged, waiting for her to explain._

"_This!" She said, opening up what he now saw was a photo album. One he kept hidden in the deepest drawer in his desk. He gulped, knowing that it contained pictures of the woman he had been sleeping with for the past two years. _

"_I don't know what that is," he said, trying to lie, but he was caught, and he knew he was caught so he might as well try to give it up with the innocent act._

"_Oh yeah," Stephanie said, pulling a picture out. She threw it at him, and he looked down at the ground. It was a picture of him and his mistress and they were hugging each other for the cameras. "That's when you told me that you had to go to Miami for an autograph signing for Fozzy, right? Because that's the only time you were at the fucking beach, right?"_

"_Steph…it isn't what you think, she's just a fan…" Yes, like lying was going to get him out of this one, but desperate men do desperate things, and he needed to get out of this alive. It was sink or swim right now and he was trying to doggie-paddle._

"_Just a fan," Stephanie said, flipping to another picture and ripping it out as she threw it down on the ground and literally looked like she was going to spit on it. "Since when do you kiss your fans, huh? When has this become a new practice, I've never kissed any of my fans like this!"_

"_Oh come on, Steph, fine…you want me to say it, you want me to admit that I'm sleeping around on you, is that it?"_

"_How could you do this to me, to us?" she asked brokenly and that made Chris crack just the tiniest bit. "I stay at home and I take care of your kids, _our_ kids, and now I find out that you're sleeping around on me. That's it, you're sleeping around on me."_

"_Look, it didn't start off that way, I just met her and it was nothing…"_

"_And you have pictures of her in our home," she continued, ignoring what he said. "You brought pictures of her into our home and kept them here. Were you hoping that I'd find out, that I'd leave you?" _

_Stephanie was biting her lip and he rolled his eyes a little, "We haven't been happy in a long time, Stephanie. We thought Kolt would make us happy, but he hasn't, and it was wrong to have him to try to save our marriage."_

"_So our baby is wrong?" she asked incredulously. "Was Harper wrong too?"_

"_He's not wrong, we just had him for the wrong reasons. I love Kelsey, Stephanie, that' s it. I keep pictures of her in my desk because otherwise I'll go insane. I've tried with you and we had a good run, but if you must know, I was staying with you for Harper and Kolt."_

_Stephanie blinked rapidly, trying to keep her tears at bay. She spoke then and kept her voice as even as she could, but her words were so scary in their coolness, "I hate you. I hate what you've become and I hate what you've made me become. I tried so hard, Chris, and I never cheated. I never once strayed and you were falling love with someone else. I hate you. I want you to get out of my house, and you are never to see my children again. You think my baby is wrong, then you can just stay out of our lives. We don't need you to survive, we're good by ourselves, so get the fuck out of my house."_

_She turned then, throwing down the photo album and then stepping on it when she walked by. She went straight upstairs and started pulling Chris's things from his drawers, taking them in large armfuls and going to the landing above the first floor, throwing this things to the ground, Chris watching as his shirts and pants fluttered to the ground without so much as a thud. The thud came moments later when she took a suitcase and threw it down there, almost knocking over a table. That's when she disappeared into the hallway, not a word, not a sound, and certainly not a second glance._

_That was the moment Chris knew he had made a mistake. It was easier to live with your lies and your infidelities when you kept them separate as if they were a dream from your real life. But once the two merged, you saw what you had. They say hindsight is a bitch for a reason, and this was the reason. For some reason, Stephanie had never been more beautiful than when she was throwing his stuff at him and ordering him silently to leave. Her hair had been flung around her face, strands shrouding her face in shadows, but he caught the blue of her eyes in the light when she had stared him down. They were shining from tears, and they had been like stars, like the stars he had told her they would always share, no matter the distance, they would always share the stars. And he had seen those two stars for the last time._

_He regretted things now and it was funny how quickly he was to change his tune, but when you lose everything, you tend to look inwards a little bit more. And when Chris looked inwards, he hated what he saw, he hated who he had become. Another little, funny thing about that is that it takes someone telling you how ugly you are for you to see just how ugly you've become. It's something that you don't just see on your own because living your life, you tend to believe in the beautiful person inside of you, not the ugly person that usually resides right along the beautiful._

_Chris was ugly, very, very ugly._

Yes, Chris was here to bridge the gap, so was Stephanie, they were here to discover what they had lost, but also to help make the other Chris and Stephanie learn that they couldn't lose what they had. They had to like, leave a note or something to this Stephanie and Chris, telling them that they had lost what they had so long ago and he would give anything, _anything_ to go back to what they had before. He had to let them know that what they had, how they needed to hold onto this because Chris couldn't bear the thought of them wrecking this. It made it a little easier on him to know that somewhere, some part of him, even if it was his doppelganger got to be happy with his soulmate.

He knew that he needed to look at these pictures if he was ever going to find and break up with the girl that he was sleeping with. He was going to do the right thing by this Chris and fix this. It gave him a sense of purpose being here. He had a mission and he would carry out that mission and he would get home knowing that in some universe…he got Stephanie…he got all of Stephanie.

He flipped it open gently, expecting a bat or something other ungodly creature to fly out at him, but nothing did of course, but the first picture almost took his breath away. It wasn't what he was expecting. Oh, sure, it was a girl of course, but it wasn't any girl…it was Stephanie. She was looking at the camera and he had to laugh because she was topless, her hands covering her chest and shoving the camera out of the way. There was another piece of masking tape underneath with Stephanie's writing, "My fiancé, the perv."

He laughed, knowing that was completely something that he would do, taking a picture of her while she was trying to get dressed. He flipped to the back of that page and there was a very close-up picture of him and Stephanie kissing somewhere. It was obviously taken by Stephanie, judging from the angle it was taken at. She must've been holding the camera at them while they were kissing, and this time the masking tape underneath said, "Aren't we sickening?"

He flipped through the pages, all of them totally random and candid shots that seemed different from the shots they had around the house. They were always smiling for the cameras in those, but these were random and obviously taken by the both of them, and each one had a caption underneath it. Towards the end, the pictures started to change, Stephanie grew bigger in them, and it seemed that the other Chris couldn't get enough pictures of a very pregnant Stephanie. There was one where she was showing off her stomach to him while making a silly face at him. The caption underneath read, "Me as a big, fat cow…moo!" and then another piece of tape right underneath that said, "Yeah, but you're MY big, fat cow."

The next few pictures included Harper, one of them being Chris sitting with her in the backyard, looking down at her adoringly, and then another with Stephanie kissing Harper's cheek, and the caption underneath simply said, "My girls…" He sighed and ran his hand over the picture. He had never been so happy to be so wrong. No, he had no mission again, but that hardly mattered. He took the photo album and he alighted from his chair and went to Stephanie's bedroom, knocking on her door.

"What?" Stephanie said, her voice muffled through the door, but he could still tell that she was wary of him.

"I want to show you something," he told her.

"I'm not in the mood, Chris, I'm tired, okay?" Stephanie told him.

"No, I want you to see this, please, I found something…"

"Something that can get us home?"

"I don't know, probably not, but I think you should see it."

She didn't answer, but he knew her, he knew Stephanie and he knew that she was going to answer the door. He was right, because she did open the door a moment later, peeking her head out. He gave her a tentative smile and she sent him a look of distrust, but opened the door further and let him inside. He sat down on the bed and she followed shortly thereafter as he laid the photo album on the bed in front of them. She looked at it curiously before he opened the first page.

He watched as Stephanie took in the picture, and then she reached out and turned the page and kept turning the page, staring at all the pictures. He was content to watch her reaction to them and as she got farther along, it became more than apparent that she had tears in her eyes. He wanted to reach out and wrap his arm around her, but she would probably shrug his arm off. She closed the book when it was through, the last picture of Kolt sleeping on Chris's chest, with a call back to Chris's "My girls…" with a "My boys…" caption in Stephanie's neat handwriting.

"Why are you showing me this?" she asked when she had finished looking at them.

"I don't know," he admitted, "I just…Stephanie, you'll never really know how much you meant to me. I want you to know that…what's in this photo album…"

"It could've been ours, I get it," she snit.

"No," he said, his voice tapering off, "I think…I think that we're getting this because we need it. I think that this is supposed to sustain us."

"Through?"

"Life," he answered simply.

"Life?"

"Yeah, I think that the both of us, we had a lot of 'what-ifs' going on inside of us. I think we were given this glimpse to tide us over," he explained. "When we go home, we'll know, if only just for a second…what it was like, not necessarily that we should have this, but that it was nice."

She looked down, "So you think this is a gift? You don't think this is a punishment, you think it's a gift."

"Yeah, I think it is, I'm sorry if you think you're being punished, I don't think I am," he told her. "I just don't." He furrowed his brow, thinking intensely. She wanted to ask him about what he was thinking, but she didn't rush him. "I spent a lot of years…thinking that you were ashamed of me. I spent a lot of years conditioning myself to not think of what we could've had because it would be too painful. But if only for this week, or month, or however long we're here, I get to be your husband and the father to your children, it answers every question I ever had about us. I know we could've been good, and if I'm only given a moment, I'm going to take that moment and look at it as a gift."

She didn't speak, but when she did, they were words he found he needed to hear. "I was scared, that's why I kept you hidden for so long, I was scared because I thought that something was going to make me lose you, my father mainly, and I didn't want to lose you. I lost you anyway though," she said with a hollow laugh that didn't reach her eyes at all. "I'm sorry I let you believe that I was ashamed."

"I'm sorry I let you believe that you weren't the only woman I was ever in love with," he said, equally as contrite. She nodded and they sat there, side-by-side, a lot of past hurt still lingering in the air, but with a ring of honesty hovering about as well.

"So this a gift?"

"Yeah."

"So I should treat it like a gift?" she asked.

"If you want."

It took her no more than two seconds to find his lips. Chris felt his mind explode when he felt the sweet softness of Stephanie's lips again. Something broke inside of him in that moment. He _felt_, that was the only thing that registered. He could feel again, and it was stupendous, it was like he had been dormant for the past eight years and suddenly, the light turned on, the door opened and rains stopped. It was like he was breathing.

And breathing had never felt so good.


	20. Chapter 20

She pulled away slowly, letting her lips linger on his for as long as she could. Chris never wanted the kiss to end. He would be content to just die right now, and never wake up, never go back to his old life, stay in this one moment forever, until it was the only thing that he could ever remember. She was kissing him, and it was amazing, and something that he had thought about many sleepless nights. Right before she pulled away completely, he felt her sigh against his lips and he smiled despite himself. His eyes were still closed, and a part of him, larger than he would like to admit, bit his lip, waiting for her to snap at him, order him out, or even slap him.

But no slap came.

He reluctantly opened his eyes, and reluctant because he wanted to savor the moment forever and opening his eyes would just make him stare into the eye's of another man's wife. And he couldn't' bear that right now, he couldn't bear the thought that he had her, and he lost her, and now she was Paul's. He had no claim to her whatsoever, nothing like a wedding ring on her finger, or being the father of her children, he had nothing like that, and it pained him.

"Well, that was something," she said, trying to sound light, but it was belying the nerves that were pulsing just underneath her skin.

"Yeah," he said to her, not knowing what else he could possibly say that wouldn't sound stupid or convoluted. "Steph, I didn't come in here with the intention of doing that. I just wanted to show you what I found, I wasn't trying to persuade you one way or the other."

"I understand that," Stephanie responded. "And I appreciate that. I appreciate you showing this to me, I needed to see it. It gave a new perspective to me, and you know, they're just happy here, and it's not something that we should…look down on or anything. They're happy here, and you know what, I think I'm happy for them."

"You are?" he asked.

"Yeah, I think I am," she told him. "They got all this, and they're lucky for it. I shouldn't begrudge them because they got their act together. I guess we just weren't meant to be, but I can't hate the me that did see through your act."

"I wonder how it happened?"

"How what happened?" she wondered.

"Them getting past what we couldn't," he answered. "Something had to be different here, something had to diverge them from what we did and what they did. I wonder if the other Chris told the other you that he wanted that baby, that non-existent baby, or if the other you told the other me that she was scared, or if the other me never lied about cheating on the other you."

Stephanie shrugged. "I don't know, but they did something right, because they got all of this, and I'm happy for them. I used to wish that you'd come to your senses, you know, realize that I was way better than Jessica and that you should leave her for me. I convinced myself that you were just waiting for the right moment. You were just waiting until you could let her down gently. I guess it was naïve of me to think that," she finished sheepishly.

He felt an immense amount of sorrow in that moment. He could picture it, Stephanie seeing him and clinging onto a slim hope that he was just waiting to get rid of Jessica. Maybe she would sit up at nights and think about it, convincing herself that the next day, she would see him and Jessica would be magically gone, banished to some remote island in the ocean, never to be seen or heard from again. He wanted to hug Stephanie right then, but he couldn't, because he didn't know where they stood and he wasn't going to overstep his bounds, not when he had just gotten the sweetest gift he had gotten in years in the form of her mouth.

"It's not naïve," Chris said. "You know, after I left you, I kind of wished that the pregnancy had been real, that you had just gotten a false negative test, and you were really pregnant and you would show up at my door, stomach out to there, beautiful as ever, and you'd tell me that you were having my baby. That's equally as stupid."

"I guess we were both clinging a little too hard," Stephanie said. "Look, about kissing you just now…"

"Don't worry about it," he excused her. He knew that she was going to say that she shouldn't have done it, that they were married, that it shouldn't have even happened, and he was letting her off the hook, he was absolving her, her sins. "It wasn't a big deal." 

"Oh…okay," she said, trying to stave off the disappointment that was inching its way into her voice. "Yeah, not a big deal at all."

"Yeah," he said, unconvinced even of his own voice. But he would give her this. He owed it to her after all that he had put her through. Eight years was a long time to believe you had been wronged, and it had to be even worse thinking that the man you loved ended up marrying the woman that had bee your replacement.

"Can I ask you a question?" Stephanie asked.

"Sure."

"You said you weren't happy with Jessica, or you weren't _now_, but were you…were you ever happy with her?"

Chris didn't know how to answer any way but honestly. "Yeah, I guess I did have some happy moments with her, but it was nothing…I shouldn't make comparisons. She's my wife, and I do…she makes me…I just like being with her, she's been there for me, you know, through everything, you can't buy that kind of loyalty."

His stuttering answered her question more than his words, and she accepted his answer. "I was just wondering, you know, I mean, she was…the one, right? We didn't work out, but I'm glad that you found someone."

"Are you really?" he inquired, and he wanted so much for her to refute it, deny it and let him take her right here, right now, pretend for a little while that the wedding rings that had magically appeared on their fingers were really theirs.

"Yes," she responded. "I would hate to think of you being alone. I would never want that for you."

He smiled and reached out to cup her cheek," Thank you, Stephanie. I know that I've done wrong by you for a long time now. I never should've made you believe that I was anything but faithful."

"It's over now, it's out in the open," she told him. She gazed at him, almost longingly. "It's out there now, and we can start to move on. It is almost like a great weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I can quit with the questions now. I don't have to think about what I did that might've been so wrong, and that's a huge relief."

"I'm sorry I ever made you believe that there was something wrong with you, I just knew that if you didn't hate me, there's no way that I could make myself leave you," he told her. "I didn't…I was just wrong about that entire—"

Kolt started crying, the hallmark of a baby so young, he didn't sleep through the night. Stephanie got off the bed and Chris let her walk out and walk down the hallway. He picked up the photo album again, wanting to let those pictures wash over him again, maybe pretend for one moment that this was actually all his. He ran his fingers over the tape that held his handwriting, but that he knew his hand had never written. Looking at something like this, it was easy to picture that it was all his. He turned to one picture and the caption underneath that simply read, "I'm never letting this go…" and the picture of Stephanie, Harper, and Kolt that looked like had been taken secretly from around the corner because none of the three was even aware there was a camera on them.

"He's cranky," Stephanie said as she walked inside the bedroom, Kolt still in her arms. He closed the album and put it on the nightstand, the moment lost now. He had to face the reality again, knowing that he was in a play of sorts, acting out a part that wasn't exactly him. He had adopted a persona for this cruel game of fate, and he was going to play his part to finish, and then bow with a flourish.

"He didn't want to go down?"

"Nope," she said, laying him on the bed up near the pillows. She laid on her side next to the baby, playing with his small hand. "No diaper change or anything. I wonder if there was anything special that she would do to calm him down."

"I've no idea," Chris said.

"I didn't expect you to," she said lightly, and the air was definitely clearer between them now. She was right. They had let everything out in the open and it was like they didn't have to live behind the lies and the hurt that they had steeped themselves in. The air was fresher now, and he could see the weights gone from their shoulders.

"Yeah, I know," he chuckled lowly, going down to emulate her position on the other side of Kolt. "He's so little you know, you just don't get to see them so much when they're this small. He's just so small."

"I bet he was cute coming out of the womb," she said. "I mean, with me as a mother, you know, it'd have to be that way."

"Yeah, he's…he's going to be a charmer," he said. "I bet the other Chris is going to raise him right, you know, not to lie to the woman you love because you're hurt. I figure that's a big lesson that he's learned over the years. Don't lie to the woman you love, you figure that it's going to be so simple, and then…you go and do it and you've fucked everything up."

"Nothing's fucked up," she argued. "We've found things and people that have helped us move forward, we haven't spent the past eight years pining away for each other. We were able to move on."

"You're right on some level," he said. "But you've thought about it, you admitted as much, you've thought about this. We could've had him, Steph, we could've had this baby together, and we could've been happy with all of this."

She ran her finger up and down Kolt's arm as the little boy cooed up at her, content to stay awake. "We could have," she conceded. "But we can also say that life dealt us this card for a reason."

"But what reason?" he pleaded to know. "Why couldn't we have had this? I just…"

"You lied," she interrupted. "You lied and I was blind, and that's how it had to be, that's how things had to be. I'm not a big believer in fate…or I didn't used to be, but being shown both paths, it's almost like…well, there is fate, and ours took us in different directions."

"I wish I had lived this direction," he said glumly, staring down at his son that wasn't really his. He felt Stephanie's finger under his chin and made him tilt his head up to look at her. Sometimes he was still amazed by how much she hadn't changed. She was still that same Stephanie he had fallen in love with so long ago…

"_You know, I can just join the WWF if you wanted me to," Chris told her. "It would make all of this so much simpler."_

"_Oh yeah, because my dad is really going to let me date a wrestler," Stephanie deadpanned. "He doesn't like me even associating with them. Whenever we do my scenes, it's like he wants to whisk me away because he wants to protect my virtue. I think he'd have a coronary if he found out I wasn't a virgin."_

"_What? Do you mean to tell me that you aren't a virgin, well, this is news!" Chris exclaimed playfully as he wrapped his arms around her waist. He lifted her a little to kiss her neck before setting her down, leaning his head against hers. "I don't see why he'd care if we're in love with each other."_

_Stephanie tensed against him, and he wondered why. He hadn't even thought about what he had just said, it hadn't yet registered in his brain. He bent his head to look at her, and her cheeks were flushing. Something warm was creeping up her skin. This man loved her, and she had never really felt like this before. Sure, she had claimed to love boys before, but that was just the thing, they had been boys, immature and not ready for life, but Chris was a man, and he was a good man, a decent man and he had chosen to love her. Yes, that warm feeling was starting to stream through her blood now._

"_Do you know what you just said?" she asked him._

"_What did I say?" he teased, honestly not even realizing it._

"_You just told me that you loved me, that you were in love with me, that I was in love with you, which…I mean, you can't really know that, but you just said you were in love with me," she turned in his arms abruptly. "Did you mean it?"_

_Chris gulped and responded, "Did I really say that?" She nodded. "Oh wow," he rubbed his hand over his mouth. "I didn't mean…"_

"_You didn't mean it…" Stephanie said regretfully, that warm feeling turning awfully cold in the span of seconds. "Oh well…okay…well, what do you want to do for dinner then, I mean, Italian sounds really good right now…"_

"_No, Steph, that's not what I meant," he was quick to amend._

"_No, Chris, it's totally fine, I get it, really," Stephanie said, "We've only been dating five months, it's really nothing, I get it…"_

"_No, you don't, obviously," he said, taking her face in his hands. "Steph, I _am_ in love with you, that's not the problem, know that though, that I am in love with you, so much, but I didn't want to tell you like this, I wanted it to be nice and romantic with a poem or something because you like poetry."_

"_Poetry is overrated," she grinned._

"_But you love poetry," he contested._

"_Well…I love you more," she told him and leaned up to kiss him. _

If only he had known then, maybe he wouldn't have let himself fall in love with her. But he wouldn't trade back that time for anything. Knowing that you loved someone who loved you equally was the best feeling. He wasn't sure that he loved Jessica the same amount that she loved him, and if they could never be equal how could they hope to last?

"This direction could be overrated," Stephanie interrupted his daydreaming rather unceremoniously. "Where's the drama, the fighting? Where's the things that made us who we are?"

She was trying to make him feel better and he loved her just a little bit more for trying to, "Yeah, I guess they are a little bit on the cheesy side."

"Definitely," she agreed, but then she looked down at Kolt and realized how empty her words were. She smiled up at him wistfully. It seemed that tonight was a night of admissions, revelations, and forgiveness. So she would make it one more.

"I wish that we had gone in this direction too…"

"Do you think that there's hope for us?" He wasn't going to get his hopes up just because they had kissed, but he needed to know if he was in for a fight. He was going to fight for her this time, and this world just gave him the motivation. In their own world, they might not get a Harper or a Kolt, but they could get a Bryce and a Kaelen or something like that. He would fight for her like he hadn't done before, if she would just give him the word. He'd start now, he would start winning her back now, just one word…

One word…

"Yes."


	21. Chapter 21

A whimpering was what woke her up the next morning.

She opened her eyes just a little bit, slits really, just enough to let light enter them and show her what she was looking at. She saw Kolt lying next to her, his mouth open in a small yawn, his arms stretching above his head. He had obviously just woken up. She opened her eyes further and saw that the light was new, signaling that the morning was still just breaking. She closed her eyes again, but Kolt's fist came into contact with her face and she opened her eyes, and this time focused on the body just beyond Kolt.

She and Chris had really only gotten to sleep a couple hours ago. They had spent the entire night talking about everything, their past, their future, how weird it really was to see how the other half lived so to speak. They had learned a lot about how the other person had survived these years apart. Chris had likened it to being kept in captivity all these years and just now being set free. She had called him a loser for thinking such a thing and then they both had really admitted that it had never been as bad as they thought it would, but that deep down, they knew that it was wrong, but were so complacent in their lives that change didn't seem like a good idea.

Until the change had been forced on them.

She reached out to rub Kolt's tummy, which helped to calm him down. She slowly sat up and stretched her arms over her head, glancing over at Chris. He looked exactly the same as the last time she had watched him sleep. She didn't want to wake him up for different reasons, one being how cute he looked, the other being she didn't exactly know what to say. Sure, they had talked, straightened a lot of things, but there was still that issue of living entirely different lives that still loomed large over them. She gently picked up Kolt and held him to her. He instinctively reached her for her shirt, obviously accustomed to getting his morning meal straight from Stephanie, so she knew that he had to get a bottle now or he'd be up and screaming and she really just wanted Chris to be here and her to…not be here when he woke up.

"Come on," she whispered right into Kolt's ear. "We'll get you a bottle."

Getting off the bed would be difficult because Chris might wake up if the mattress shifted and her weight was no longer on it. Holding her breath, she stood up, wincing when the frame creaked a little bit. Chris didn't move though, and she breathed a sigh of relief as she padded out of the room and down the stairs to the kitchen. She gathered a bottle for Kolt and then went to sit on the couch. Since it was still early morning (6:23 according to the clock), she didn't want to risk making any noise so she just sat there and thought. But thinking was always a cruel mistress.

What was she really doing here? She didn't know any more than Chris did, and that was very little. It was all well and good now between her and Chris, the air was finally cleared and the truth was finally revealed from both sides, but did that really matter in the long run? Could it matter? This wasn't their life, and it never would be, no matter how much they both wanted it to be. They had to keep perspective and last night they had lost all sense of that perspective for a little while, but it was never meant to be. If it was meant to be, they would have all this instead of being married to different people and living hundreds of miles apart, both physically and in their hearts. It was always so close and yet so far away.

They were living on borrowed time, and any second, any moment, they could be whisked away to their normal lives. She couldn't let this seep in. She knew that Chris wanted to make it work, but she couldn't do it. She couldn't pretend like this was going to be her life day in and day out. She was just happy to know the truth. She could live with the truth, she would learn to live with the truth and be happy with it. She was happy, to a degree, with Paul, so she could be happy again, and now she had the burden of Chris off her shoulders.

Speaking of shoulders, there was two large hands on her own shoulders, kneading the kinks out of it. She tensed a little bit and he felt it and knelt behind the couch, wrapping his arms around her neck and kissing her just under the earlobe. She closed her eyes, reminding herself of Paul, of the way he touched her and made her laugh and helped her through the tough times, the times she questioned herself.

Chris was observing her face. The way her eyelashes fluttered over her skin and how they encased some of the most mysterious and beautiful eyes he had ever seen. He memorized the way her nose was the tiniest bit crooked and how her full lips were pouting slightly. He had kept memories of her for years in his heart and his head, and he was now replacing them with something better, her in this moment.

"Morning," he said, his voice still scratchy from sleep.

"Good morning," she told him softly. He turned her towards him with one finger and she gave him a weak smile. "How did you sleep?"

"I slept pretty well, I'm just glad that I didn't roll over Kolt," he joked, but she didn't laugh and he sighed, knowing that there was something going on in that pretty little brain of hers. "So what's got you thinking?"

"Life," she told him, her eyes searching his. "This life, everything that we have right this second, and not just here, but somewhere else where our lives are normal and _ours_."

"Oh," he said, "You've been thinking about back home…"

"I have," she confirmed. "Who are we kidding, Chris? This isn't ours. And however nice it is that we've cleared the air between us and that we're good now, with everything out in the open, this doesn't change anything in our lives, not really."

"I know this."

"We can wake up tomorrow and I can be next to Paul and you can be next to Jessica, and then where does that leave us? Does it leave us as what we were before, just people who work together, or used to work together? Do we forget all of this, or do we forget our real lives? Do we hurt our spouses for no apparent reason or do we hurt ourselves by not following this?"

"I can't say, Steph," he told her, brushing a stray lock of hair away from her face. "I don't know if we'll ever go back home, or if we'll wake up tomorrow back home, and once we get there, I don't know what's going to happen. I just know that we're here now."

"You're going to get cheesy on me again," she kidded with him and he kissed the tip of her nose and then nuzzled his nose against hers, something she used to love that he did and she giggled despite herself.

"I am going to get cheesy, we have this moment, this day, maybe more, but we can make the most of it, can't we?"

"You're asking me to pretend like we're married, for real?"

"We've been together before," he pointed out correctly. "Or was that just a figment of my imagination too? We were good together, Steph, you know this, we were right for each other, we've always been right for each other, we just have to believe that again."

"I'm not sure I can be with you here and then not be with you if we ever go back home. Once I fell for you, Chris, I fell for you hard, you don't even know how hard it was for me at first, you don't know the hell that I went through. If I fall for you, if I let myself go again, I don't think I'll recover if we go back home, I just don't see it happening."

Chris hopped over the back of the couch and sat facing her. "Then…we'll figure something out in the other life, Steph, if we can co-exist and not kill each other for however long we're here, if we find everything that we used to have here, then we'll figure something out in the other world too."

"You'd leave Jessica, just like that?" she asked. He hesitated and she nodded. "See, Chris, you can't promise me anything. You can't promise that if we start again here that we'll end in the other world. We'll have complications, other people to factor in. You can't promise me and I can't let myself go if you're just going to leave me again."

"I don't know what I'll do, I've never been in this situation before, sorry," he chuckled mirthlessly. "Please Steph, if this is a second chance, shouldn't we take it, at least for the day, one day, that's all I'm asking for."

"One day…" she echoed as she lifted up Kolt to be burped. Chris rubbed the little boy's back as well, and Stephanie looked at Chris, who was looking at her imploringly. "I do love you, Chris." 

"I know you do, Stephy," he said to her. "I know that you do."

"When you walked into the arena with her, when I saw you hugging her after your debut, it ripped my heart out, Chris, it never really got better," she said. "It never got better…"

Chris took Kolt out of her arms and put him in the carrier on the table. He took Stephanie's hand and put it over his heart and looked at her deep in the eyes, his blue ones piercing her gray ones. He held them for a moment before speaking, "It never got better either."

She could feel the beating of his heart beneath her palm and she closed her eyes briefly, being transported back to a time when that constant rhythm would lull her to sleep at night. It was like the stars, constant and strong and always there. She recalled a time when her father wouldn't allow her to be on the show even though she desperately wanted to be on it and her crying into Chris's chest that it wasn't fair that Shane got so much more just because he was a male. He comforted her that night and many nights after that.

"Why do you keep doing this to me?"

"Because you don't give up just because you don't think you're going to get what you want," he told her. "I shouldn't have given up. I should've fought. Apparently the Chris in this world got all the guts."

She lunged at him, throwing her arms around him and hugging him. "What do you want to do today?"

"Is sex on the agenda?" he asked cheekily and she laughed and kissed his cheek, but gave him no answer. He wasn't going to push that particular issue even though his body was already craving her body being melded into his own. Her body had always felt like it just fit with his and his breathing got a little stunted as he thought about how good it felt to be inside of her.

"We can just have a day to ourselves, maybe," she told him, "I mean, I know we have the kids and everything, but I'd bet that my mom wouldn't have a problem watching them today, she seems to love them a lot."

"True, and what would we do?" he wondered.

"We could go out, maybe grab food, just spend the day together. It's been…a long time since we've spent any kind of time together, we might not enjoy the same things that we used to like, I know that I've changed a little bit, and you've probably changed too. You like music more, maybe we could go to a concert or something."

"Or we can stay here and just be together, I like that idea too…"

They ended up in Central Park. The day was beautiful, the kind of day that just wouldn't allow you to stay inside. Linda hadn't been able to take the kids so they were there too, Kolt shaded nicely in his baby bouncer while Harper was studying the grass and running around the immediate area, Stephanie keeping a close eye on her. Chris was laying on his stomach, reading a magazine and she leaned her head against his upper back for a moment.

"Are you having fun?" she asked.

"You know, I think I just might be," he said. "It's weird, I like just being quiet here and sitting around. Usually Jess and I…oh, sorry…"

"No, finish, please," Stephanie said.

"Oh, well, when we wanted to have fun, Jess and I would usually go out clubbing or to a metal concert, and very loud," he told her. He turned over on his back and Stephanie laid her head across his stomach and he reached down to link his fingers with her. "I think I like this better though."

"Do you share a lot of things in common?" she wondered.

"Some," he told her. "She wanted to talk kids."

"Did she?" Stephanie said, and she felt a knot growing in her stomach, but no, she had to hear this, perspective and all that. She at least had to hold onto reality a little, because if they did go back and Stephanie was forced away from Chris again, then she would have to get used to this, and it was better to start now, it was better to miss him while she was still with him than to miss him and have him never be near her again.

"Yeah, she wanted them, I was unsure, ever since…what happened with us, I've been a little wary of kids," Chris admitted. "Not that I hate them, I just…would look at kids and would try to picture what our kids would look like, turns out they're gorgeous, just like I thought."

"Daddy, look what I found!" Harper yelled as she came over with a dandelion in her small hands. "Here you go."

"Thank you," he said, kissing her cheek. "I think I'm going to give it to Mommy though, she deserves all the prettiest things." He handed her the dandelion and she took it with a smile.

"Thank you both," she said as Harper tried to climb over to her, emulating her mother's position.

"What are you looking at, Mommy?" Harper asked.

"The clouds, pretty huh?"

"Uh huh, and you can find pictures in them, that's what Grandma said," she said matter-of-factly. "Right, Mommy?"

"That's right," she said as Chris watched the both of them talking to each other. This was what life was supposed to be like, and if he only got it for a little while, then he was going to take it and cling to it until it was forcibly ripped from his grasp. He hadn't told Stephanie how much it actually hurt him to break up with her. He had alluded to it, but he never told her about that night. He had gone out to drink her away, drink the memories away, and had ended up in a hospital bed getting his stomach pumped. He would never tell her that's how much it hurt, he couldn't let her know that, but that's why he had to hold on so tight, because he could forget about that in the face of this new life.

"I'm going to go find more flowers, Mommy," Harper said as she hopped up.

"Stay in the area, okay?"

"Uh huh," Harper nodded and scampered off. Stephanie closed her eyes and then opened her eyes a little and stared up at the clouds passing overhead, indeterminable shapes and she narrowed her eyes a little bit.

"I told you about her at the company Christmas party," Stephanie said, shaking her head and turning on her stomach so that she could face Chris. "I told you about Harper at the Christmas party. We were under the mistletoe and you went in to kiss me and I told you that there was someone else standing under the mistletoe too, and you got confused until I told you I was having a baby and you fell back against the doorway and you almost knocked a Christmas tree over. Then you kissed my stomach."

He laughed, "Yeah, that's how I would react, did you read something where the other Stephanie said that happened?"

"No," she said, shaking her head a little bit. "I don't know, it just seemed to come to me for some reason. Maybe I read it and I didn't remember that I had read it," she laughed. "That's probably it. But it's such a nice story, I'm sure that I had kept that in my brain. I guess that's what happier times would've looked like."

"Yeah, that would be such a you way to tell me you were having my baby."

"It would've been," she said, feeling like she had grabbed this particular memory from somewhere, but her mind was a complete blank and she couldn't place it. No matter though, it was just a funny little story to remember. Remember today, tomorrow, even if it was a memory that wasn't her. But it had felt so real, she could recall laughing, the excitement at telling him, the joy at his reaction. She seemed to remember it.

But that couldn't be possible, right?


	22. Chapter 22

A/N: Thanks for the reviews, but keep reviewing, thanks! :)

* * *

"I…am exhausted."

Stephanie collapsed on the bed face-first and buried her face into the pillow. She could seriously just fall asleep right then and there. She closed her eyes and laid there for a few moments, wondering what Chris was doing because she couldn't see anything from her face being buried into her pillow. She could kind of hear him moving around, but she wondered what he was doing.

Then she felt him start to pull of her socks and she turned on her back, opening her eyes, "What are you doing?"

"You can't sleep in your clothes," he told her. "We've been everywhere today."

"Since when have you cared so much about that?" she asked.

"Well, I've grown up a lot in eight years," he told her, sticking his tongue out. "Come on, let me at least help you if you're so tired, you had both of the kids hanging off of you most of the day, it's the least I can do."

"Yeah, they were being very Mommy-loving today," she said, smiling a little.

"What's that? Oh my God, did I…I think you did…you were smiling," Chris said, grabbing her by the ankle. She tried to shake loose but he had her gripped pretty firmly.

"I was not," she tried to say, but she was trying hard not to smile again, and get caught. She wasn't supposed to like this life as much as she was. She was supposed to prefer her own life and want to go back to that life as quickly as possible. She was supposed to love Paul and that life, and not fall in love with what she had now.

"Yes you were, you were," he told her, grinning now. "Admit it, Stephanie, this life is really growing on you, you are really loving it."

"No!" she told him, but he was giving her that look she used to hate. It was the look where he knew she was lying, and he was going to get the truth out of her in any way possible. She hated that because she knew that it usually consisted of him tickling her into submission, and if that didn't work, he would kiss it out of her, though she wasn't sure if he'd go this far. They hadn't really been together for eight years.

"Stephanie…" he coaxed, running a finger up her foot, which caused her to jerk it away instinctively. He gave her another one of his looks and wiggled his fingers threateningly. "Don't make me do it."

"Chris, no, don't!" she told him. He went for it and started tickling her foot. She started to laugh loudly, actually guffawing when he hit a particularly sensitive spot. "Okay, I give, I give, I give! I'm liking this life!"

He let go of her and raised his arms up in victory. "Once again, Chris Irvine is the champion of the world and Stephanie McMahon is left in the dust. Nice to know that I haven't lost my touch. I rule, you drool."

"You are such a child," she admonished him, but there was obvious teasing in her voice.

Chris threw himself on the bed and laid on his side next to her. It was just like old times, the day having eased him up considerably. He and Stephanie were here together, and they both wanted it. It was living again, and living felt good, and he felt good, and this life felt like it was fitting more and more into him. He felt like it was starting to feel like an old, comfortable shoe. She turned on her side to face him and they stared at each other for a few seconds, both with smiles lighting up their faces.

"So you like it here?"

"I can't help it," she admitted. "I…really, I love it."

"That's a strong word."

"I know it is," she told him. "I know…but I can't do anything about it. The more time I'm here, the more it feels…right."

"Did you not feel right in your other life?"

"No, I mean…I did, I just…didn't feel _this_ right," she said uneasily, like she was saying something awful about Paul. It had never been terrible with Paul; she felt like she should tell that to Chris, "It was never horrible with him, you know, we had good times."

"I'm not doubting that," Chris said.

"It was just…different, loving him...was different, not a bad different just…different," she said, then closed her eyes and cursed under breath, "I'm sorry, I'm not articulating myself really well right now, you must think I'm an idiot."

"I've never thought that," he told her seriously, reaching out to grab her free hand and entwining it with his. "Okay, so I thought that, that one time when we were at that restaurant, you know, the barbeque place and…"

"Chris," she whined. "I swear, I don't know how I got barbeque sauce on my forehead okay, and I still contest that you probably put it there and then didn't tell me, and made the waitress laugh at me."

"Oh yes, because that's just what I wanted," he said to her. "I wonder if the other Chris and Stephanie remember that."

"Maybe," she said, "or maybe they've built so many new memories that they have no need to remember those ones. Maybe it's just a blip on their radar when it's one of the only memories that we have."

"Yeah," he said wistfully. "They're lucky."

"So lucky," Stephanie echoed. "I do love this life now, Chris. Those kids, they're mine, you know, and I know that I didn't give birth to them, but they're still mine, and they love me, they actually love me. Did you see Kolt today, I think he actually smiled at me. He hasn't done that, I swear I think he knew I wasn't his real mommy."

"I think that we've just warmed up to them."

"That too," Stephanie said. "It's nice to have someone that loves you so unconditionally. They don't even care about the person I am, they just…they love me anyways, that's such a nice feeling, I don't think I've ever had that."

"I haven't either."

"Yeah," she said, rolling over to lay on her back. "I'm getting in too deep, Chris. I'm falling in love with this life, and I'm already in love with these kids, and then I have you. I have you after eight years of questioning myself and questioning what happened. I mean, how could I not fall in love with this?"

"I get what you're saying," he said, looking at her. "I don't even know if I want to go back. I don't even care…I think."

"I don't think I do either, and that's scary. Paul was a good husband and we had a good life, but I'm here and how can they, whoever _they _are, expect me to just sit back and not fall in love with this. They're toying with us and it's sickening."

"I know," he told her, rubbing her stomach. She used to love that. When they were together, she'd get stomachaches from all the stress of her job. She was just starting out in the WWF, her father was putting a lot of pressure on her to do well so she could take over someday, and she'd come home and she'd be just stressed out to the max and she'd complain of stomachaches. He'd taken to rubbing her stomach when this happened, and she'd always found the soothing rhythm helpful.

Stephanie closed her eyes as she put all her focus into Chris's hand on her stomach. He remembered, she thought to herself, and a wave of unexpected relief came over her at the thought. Even if she didn't remember the past eight years in this world, she still knew this Chris. She knew him, and he knew her and that was a great comfort to her. She reached down and stopped his hand so it was just resting on her stomach and she was happy just with the physical contact.

"We have to pay the bills," Chris said out of the blue and Stephanie opened her eyes and turned her head to look at him.

"What?"

"We have to pay the bills," he said, squinting his eyes in thought.

"That was random."

"I know, it just popped into my head," he told her, blinking a few times like he was honestly surprised at the thought.

"How do you know that, anyways, did you look at some of the bills? Not that it isn't a valid thought, I don't want the electricity to go out or anything," Stephanie said, "but it was just out of the blue."

"I must've seen a bill or something and remembered the date, but we definitely have to take care of that tomorrow, I don't want to live in the dark or have no heat because those kids would freeze," he said, still wondering when he had seen a bill. Well, it didn't matter, anyways, he was in bed with Stephanie, and that was really what he should be focusing on.

"I don't want them to freeze," Stephanie joked. "That would be terrible, we'd all have to huddle in this one bed, and it would be very uncomfortable."

Chris realized that his hand was still on her stomach, right in between the bottom of her breasts and the top of her jeans. It was like he was trapped between two places he never thought he'd see again, but she had both her hands on his one hand and she seemed to be indicating that she didn't want him to move his hand at all. She was also lightly caressing it, and combine that with everything being out in the open with them, and it was getting very hard not to scoot ever closer to her, which he found himself doing.

She didn't notice though as she stared at the ceiling, reveling in the quiet. It was nice to get away from the kids for just a little while. She was still getting used to having them around her for most of the day, especially in Kolt's case, so the little free time she had was nice. The quiet was nice too, especially because she knew it wasn't going to last. Kolt wasn't sleeping through the night so if she could get some sleep now, then she'd be okay tomorrow and later when she woke up.

She turned to ask Chris if he was going to bed and gasped softly when she saw how close he had gotten to her. She didn't say anything as she felt the hand he had on his stomach turn into his arm as he wrapped his arm around her waist. She breathed out his name almost inaudibly but before she could even hit the S in his name, his lips were on hers. She returned the kiss, a moist, open-mouthed kiss that they were both into in seconds.

"Chris," she moaned against his mouth, lightly pushing on his chest.

"What?" he asked.

"We can't," she told him, using the few bearings that she had left. "We're married."

"To each other," he reminded her.

"Yes, here, technically, but…Paul…Jessica…"

"Stephanie, we're here, we could be here forever, you said you were forgetting about them. The Paul in this world is married to Joanie, and the Jessica in this world is…a world-class slut, so why shouldn't we do this? Who are we hurting in this world?"

"I'm thinking about who we can hurt in _our_ world," she told him.

"Stephanie, I love you," he told her. "I've pretty much only thought about you since that day back in 1997 when I ran into you while you had a meeting with Scott Steiner to try and get him over to WWF."

"Yeah, and it didn't even work, much to my father's chagrin," she added. "He thought I could use my womanly wiles to get him to come over."

"Instead you wasted them all on me," he told her tenderly. "I was gone from that moment on. I had to know you. I just had to."

"You followed me to my car," she laughed, thinking back to the memory. "You followed me and asked me out as I was driving away. I didn't want to get involved with a WCW guy because my dad would've killed me, I thought."

"I jogged next to your car until the end of the parking lot when right before you turned to exit, you said that you would and that you could get my number…I honestly didn't expect you to call."

"But I did," she finished. "Still…"

"Still what, Stephanie…we're stuck here, and I love you, do you love me too?" he asked.

She paused, and it wasn't the kind of pause that scared Chris. It was the kind of pause where she was composing herself. She pressed her lips together a little and blinked slowly, like she was savoring the feeling. Why was this so hard? This was her world now and anything and everything that she thought she once knew, she had left behind, leaving her here, with Chris, in a bedroom declared theirs by some other Chris and Stephanie, and she had only this.

"I love you too," she told him earnestly, her voice almost cracking at the emotion of it. "I always have, I never stopped, I never knew how, I just kept loving you and loving you and hiding it behind the shame that I could still love you after so long, I didn't know how to stop…"

Before she could continue, he silenced her, not wanting to relive the past hurt. He was moving forward, moving forward to her mouth, his hands moving forward to her warm skin underneath her t-shirt. She sighed against his lips, arching against him and silently urging him to take off her shirt. He obliged, pulling away for a moment, Stephanie keening at the loss of contact, before pulling her shirt over her head and then going back to kissing her, moving lower.

Stephanie hadn't felt like this in years. Sure, it was…good with Paul, but it never felt like someone had turned up the heat a million degrees and his kisses were like ice on her scorching skin. Only Chris had ever made her feel like that and he was doing it right now as his tongue traced her belly button. He whipped his own shirt off and went for her pants, unbuttoning them slowly as she arched her hips to help him get them off. Once they were off, he looked at her and groaned in anticipation.

"I've changed," she said simply, "I'm not twenty-one anymore."

"I wouldn't want you to be," he said. "You're better now…_we're _better now."

"How do you figure that?" she asked coyly, and it was a definitely teasing kind of coy since she was currently in a white bra and panty set. She looked like an angel to Chris, who was kneeling on the bed over her. She was lying there, the black sheets just making her stand out even more, a stark contrast of light and dark. Her hair was framing her face and he always loved having sex with her because she made it fun and light, and never a burden like Jessica could make it.

"Because I haven't slept with you in eight years, I'm going to be even better than I was then because you are hot."

"Well," she said, touching herself lightly. "Yes, I'd say I was a little hot."

He growled as he pounced on top of her and she laughed playfully as they started to kiss again, his hands roaming everywhere. She loved doing this with him. Chris had been the second guy she had ever been with when she had been the young age of twenty-one. The only other guy she had been with was the gawky and inexperienced boyfriend she had her freshmen year. He had been clumsy in bed, but never Chris, Chris was smooth like silk, and she loved being in bed with him. She just loved him.

They were wrapped around each other later when Kolt started to cry. Stephanie opened her eyes and felt Chris's arm around her waist and his hand resting on her bare breast. She closed her eyes again and just felt his warm body pressing against hers, almost too hot for her. She didn't want to move and wasn't sure she could move. Eight years was too long to go between having sex with Chris. He had always been masterful at what he did, a perfectionist even. And he had been pretty damn perfect.

"Chris, baby…"

"You want more of me?" he mumbled.

"No, the baby," she told him. "Go take care of him, I'm tired, I can't walk, your fault by the way."

He smirked, "Well, I like to admire my handiwork, but I guess that I can leave you for a few minutes to take care of…our son." That was the first time he had really referred to the kids as theirs, as being their son. She smiled sleepily and grabbed his hand to pull him down and kiss him for his cuteness. He could feel himself getting a rise out of her, but he refrained and got off the bed, reaching for his boxers before going into Kolt's room.

He walked up to the baby and picked him up, running his hand around Kolt's back before feeling a wetness in his diaper. "Okay, changing time, kiddo."

Chris changed Kolt quickly and then took him over to the rocking chair. He was just rocking back and forth when he recalled the first time that Stephanie had brought Kolt home and sat in the chair, rocking him back and forth since he was crying from the change of surroundings. The nursery had been half-finished because he and Stephanie were lazy and working, and the rocking chair had been one of the only pieces of furniture in the room. Chris looked down at Kolt confused. That thought had popped into his mind rather abruptly. He realized he must be daydreaming because the image of Stephanie bringing home Kolt had never actually happened to him. It was like when he daydreamed about what the other Chris and Stephanie were doing. Daydreams were nice, but they weren't reality.

But they were definitely nice.


	23. Chapter 23

A/N: Happy Holidays! :)

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Stephanie felt light.

Not light in the sense that she had lost some weight, but light in the sense that there was a brightness to her that she didn't think was there before. Okay, so some of it was obviously due to the fact that she and Chris had started up their…physical relationship again. But the other part was just over the fact that she was happy. Every burden felt like it had been lifted from her shoulders. Chris had never cheated on her, he loved her, and they were seemingly back on track with one another. It was wonderful, she felt wonderful.

Chris wrapped his arm around Stephanie's shoulders, pulling her so she was leaning against him. He had Kolt's carrier in his right hand and Harper was walking next to Stephanie on her left, holding her hand. Chris had his arm almost around her neck and Stephanie reached her right hand up to intertwine their fingers, not ever wanting to break contact with him. She turned her head slightly and saw him snapping at his gum, staring straight ahead, a strange look of determination on his face.

"You have to wrestle tonight," she told him.

"I know," he said as they walked.

"You're not ready."

"What do you mean I'm not ready," he said, looking at her over his sunglasses as they dipped a little on his nose. "I'm always ready. I was born ready, don't you question my readiness." His tone was playful and she stuck her tongue out at him.

"But you said yourself when we were at Raw the other week that you weren't conditioned, and now suddenly, you're conditioned and ready to go, when have you been going to the gym?" she asked him.

"I've been getting a workout from my favorite gal," he told her, winking as she reached up to push his sunglasses back up his nose before returning her hand to his strong grip.

"Are you honestly telling me that you're ready?" she asked, wondering how he could be so assured when he hadn't been in the ring for over a year. She didn't want him to go out there and be rusty and fail, or lose or something, if he wasn't supposed to. He hadn't come back yet, he wasn't ready, so why was he ready now?

"Yes, I'm honestly telling you that I'm ready, why wouldn't I be?" he asked, and he had genuine confusion in his voice at her question. He knew that he was ready to go, wasn't he a wrestler? Wasn't it in his blood to be a wrestler for the rest of his life? He knew how to go out there and do his job, it was something that he did every week, he could surely go out there right now and wrestle.

"I don't know," she said, looking down, confused at her own question for a moment. She looked up at Chris and felt a foggy haze of passion for him, or what felt like passion, it could've easily been something in her eye. "You know, yeah, I don't know why, you're Chris Irvine, and you are great at whatever you do."

"You sound like I've brainwashed you," he told her with a chuckle.

"Oh yes, that's how you got me to marry you, you brainwashed me, I see it all now," she told him, looking up at him adoringly.

Chris was just on cloud nine. He was here with Stephanie, _the_ Stephanie, the only woman that had ever made him feel like…a man or something? He didn't know, but she made him feel different, sure…there had been others, there had been a lot of others before her, but he would've traded them all in for a few more years with Stephanie. This, right now, with Stephanie, was something that you could only dream about. He impulsively turned his head and kissed her. She looked up at him and silently asked why he had done that.

"Because I love you," he whispered to her.

"Well, husband of mine," and oh how she loved to say that. "I'm going to take Harper to see the makeup lady because I told her that tonight she could look pretty."

"You're letting my daughter wear makeup!" Chris said, pretending to be angry.

"Blush and lip gloss, it's not like I'm going to make her look like a hooker or something," she teased as she let go of his hand. "We'll see you boys later, don't do anything we wouldn't do."

Chris watched as she bounded down the hallway, Harper skipping after her, giggling the entire time. He looked down at Kolt, who had just woken up from his nap. He yawned and looked up at Chris with those eyes. He found himself smiling even wider, and he didn't think that was possible. He looked back up to watch where he was going and saw Stacy walking towards him. That was odd since in his real life, she wasn't on the show either, but things were all different here anyways.

"Chris!" she said happily. He was about to smile when an instinctive frown came over his face. He was having feelings of hatred rise up into him quickly, like boiling water spilling over. He scowled as she came close. "I've been waiting for you to get here…oh my God, is this your son!"

"Yeah, this is Kolt," he said through gritted teeth and he wondered where this hatred was coming from. He had never had anything against Stacy before, she was just kind of…there, but right now, all he could feel was vitriolic hatred.

"He's so adorable!" she gushed. "Just like his father."

"Yeah, whatever, Stacy."

"Did you think about what I said a few weeks ago?" she wondered and he turned to her, narrowing his eyes, not remembering what she had said to him.

"You'll have to refresh my memory," he said.

"Well, I know that Stephanie is…around again, boo," she said, pouting a little bit. "But my offer still stands. If you get sick of her, my door is always open…and that won't be the only thing that's open either."

He couldn't believe the audacity of her. "Yeah, I'm betting that won't be the only thing that's open," he said sarcastically, "why the hell are you coming up to me anyways, Stacy? I highly doubt that I'd want to get with you."

"Well, keep it in mind," she told him, licking her lips a little bit. "I bet she doesn't even want to do it since she gave birth, that's what I hear about women who have just had babies, and it'd be such a shame for you go without."

"Not with you," he sneered as he kept walking. She was such a bitch, was she like that in his life? Probably. He despised her for making passes at him, and this had been going on for a while. He couldn't believe she would just so openly try to hook up with him when he was so obviously married. "Come on, Kolt, let's go."

"You look so beautiful, Harper!" Stephanie gushed as Karen, the makeup artist for the evening, put on a little bit of pink lip gloss to Harper's lips. She grinned when she was done and smiled for her mommy.

"I look pretty?"

"The prettiest."

"Oh wow, look at you, Harper," another voice said and Stephanie looked over her shoulder to see Joanie walking over and peeking over Stephanie's shoulder. "I just came to get a touch-up, I didn't expect to see the most beautiful girl in the world over here."

Harper giggled, "Mommy said I could wear makeup tonight like she does when she goes out there."

"Well, you look beautiful."

"Hello Joanie," Stephanie said cordially. "How are you tonight?"

"I'm great, actually, thanks for asking," she said. "Actually, I was sorta looking for you. I was wondering if your dad was going to be here tonight because there's something that I wanted to discuss with him."

"He's here every week, pretty much, this week is no exception. Is this anything that I can take care of?"

"Well, I don't know, I just needed…time off, I guess," she told her. Stephanie looked at her curiously, tilting her head to the side a little as if to assess that statement even further. Joanie felt uneasy under Stephanie's gaze, but then Stephanie smiled at her, and then ran her hand through Harper's hair.

"Well, he should be here, so go ahead and check his office," Stephanie told her.

"Thanks," Joanie said as Paul happened upon them.

"If it isn't my best girl."

Stephanie figured that sentence should've hurt, but it didn't. There was nothing in her chest. She was Chris's wife here, and Chris loved her and he wanted to be with her. Who was Paul anyways, he was just…Paul was married to Joanie and he loved her and she loved Chris and had children with him. Her babies, she had her babies, and they were Chris's babies too, and she was living a happy, normal, okay, not so normal life. She was happy though, and Paul and Joanie were looking especially happy tonight. She observed them and the way that he leaned his forehead against hers. It was downright…cute, actually, it was sickeningly cute.

"You two are grossing me out over here," Stephanie said.

"Me too," Harper said, wanting to be just like her mommy.

"Sorry," Paul said, glancing over at Stephanie. "I'm just…tonight's going to be a good night, actually, so…yeah, I am happy and I don't care if I'm grossing you out, sorry, Stephanie."

"No," she said, feeling a short pang of something in her chest, but she couldn't identify it. She ignored it though, figuring that it was just the fact that she wanted Chris here right now to be just as cute with her. Or they could wait to be cute tonight when they were alone in their part of the suite and he was touching her the way that he did. Yeah, she could wait.

"You're all flush, Stephanie, you okay?"

"Fine, you two look like the cats that ate the canary, what's up with you guys?" Stephanie asked, wanting to be in on the joke. There was obviously something to be in on.

"Well…" Paul started, looking over at Joanie. Joanie shrugged as they had a conversation with their eyes. She closed her eyes momentarily, shaking a thought from her brain, and then it shook itself right back into it when she thought about how she and Paul never had conversations with their eyes. But the thought flitted right back out again as Paul turned back to her. "We're having a baby."

Stephanie felt like she should've felt something, anger, jealousy, _something_, but yet…there was nothing inside of her chest, no crushing feeling, no faint feeling, just…emptiness, well, no, not emptiness, there was something creeping up into her as well. She actually felt…happy for them? Was that what that was? It was strange to say the least, but as the corners of her lips turned up into a smile she could confirm that it was happiness that was flowing through her veins, and it was for them.

"Oh, congratulations you two!" spilled forth from her lips before she had time to think and analyze how awkward it was congratulating a man who was essentially your husband, and the wife he had in some parallel universe.

"Thanks," they said simultaneously. Then Joanie said, "That's why I need the time off, I don't think I should be wrestling right now."

"She's not going to, trust me," Paul said. "I'm going to make sure of that, I don't even want her near the ring."

"See how he acts," Joanie said, pointing at him. "Was Chris like that when you were pregnant?"

Stephanie was stricken for a moment, not knowing how to respond, but then it was like water off her tongue, "Oh my God, you should've seen him. I don't think he wanted me to walk up the stairs in my house, and they're only like eight stairs from the first floor to the second floor. He was worse with Harper though, because she was my first," Stephanie said, wrapping her arm around Harper's shoulder and kissing her. "He was so scared and nervous."

"So I have to look forward to nine months of this?"

"Yeah, you do," Stephanie said. "It gets easier though, closer, because then the baby is pretty much okay. Your second is easier, Chris knew what to expect with Kolt, didn't stop him from worrying, but it was definitely less."

"Great," Joanie said, but she was beaming. "I better go find your dad though, he has me scheduled to wrestle tonight, and I think Paul will throw a hissy fit over it. Bye, Steph."

"Bye, and congratulations," she said as Joanie walked off. Paul stayed though and she looked at him, this man who was her husband, but who wasn't at the same time. She wondered if he had ever had feelings for her here.

"I'm nervous," he admitted. "For her, for us, a baby is a big thing."

"It is," she said as she spotted Chris over Paul's shoulder. Chris smiled when he saw her and walked over. Kolt was now happily in his arms, his mouth around a pacifier, sucking on it eagerly as he showed a little recognition at seeing Stephanie. "There's Chris, ask him."

Paul seemed to blush and that was another first for her. Chris came over and kissed her, and it was almost possessively and she realized that he was claiming her for his own in front of Paul, and it didn't matter that it was this Paul or…that other Paul, he was claiming her. She let the kiss go for a few seconds but pulled away before Paul could get uncomfortable. Chris looked at him and then at Stephanie, wondering what was going on in her head. Little did he know that there wasn't much going on in there pertaining to Paul.

"Paul has news," Stephanie said.

"Joanie's having a baby," Paul told him. Chris looked immediately to Stephanie to gauge her reaction, but she was smiling. Well, Paul and Joanie _were_ married and they deserved to be happy. Yes, they deserved this.

"Congratulations," and then like that, he started to speak. "It's scary, but worth it."

"So I've been told, thanks for the advice though, Stephanie."

"No problem." Paul walked away and she turned to a curious Chris. "What?"

"Advice?"

"Yeah, on babies and stuff."

"You gave _him_ advice?"

"Yeah, why not?" she asked. He thought for a moment and shrugged. "See you have nothing."

"Yeah, I've got nothing."


	24. Chapter 24

A/N: Hope everyone has a happy New Year! Enjoy and leave a review! :)

* * *

"_Take good care of them…"_

"_What?" Chris asked, looking around, trying to identify where the voice was coming from. He knew the voice well, too well, because it was his own voice, but he wasn't the one speaking the words. He could hear himself, but he couldn't see himself. "What do you mean?"_

"_Take care of them…"_

"_Where are you?" Chris inquired, calling out into the darkness. _

_Then he emerged, and it was him, and he was walking towards himself. It wasn't a mirror because he wasn't moving, but this man, no, he…he was walking towards him, looking at him and it was achingly familiar because it was just himself walking up to…himself. The other Chris stopped and smiled, and Chris didn't smile back because this was creepy._

"_You're…me…"_

"_Yes, I'm you, no shit, Sherlock," the other Chris sassed. Yes, this was definitely him and not an imposter. "Take care of my kids…"_

"_Your kids? Harper and Kolt?"_

"_Yeah, them, the little kids you've been taking care of for me and Stephanie. They're not really yours, you know, they're mine, they're mine and Stephanie's, you screwed up your life, you screwed yourself over."_

"_I didn't mean to."_

"_What's it feel like to have it all? What's it feel like to realize what an idiot decision you made? Not to mention, Jessica?" the other Chris scoffed. "Are you kidding me with that one? Did she pounce you or something and lay her claws into you? I mean, you dated her for like half a year, and then you marry her after _Stephanie_, our Stephanie?"_

"_I made a mistake."_

"_I'll say, she's horrible, I don't know how the hell you deal with her."_

"_I dealt. You're a lucky man."_

"_I know, because I wasn't an asshole. If you had just told her, she would've understood. I told her and she understood."_

"_Understood what? What did you understand?"_

"_If you don't know, I can't help you, man, just take good care of my kids, I love them, they're my world, along with Steph. I can't believe you gave her up for _Jessica_, were you high or something? Seriously, have you met Stephanie and then met Jessica? That has to go down as one of the worst decisions in the world…seriously, you should get a medal for that or something. You know it's not going to last right, you're not going to get my kids, you're never going to get my kids…you're never going to get Stephanie, you were a jackass, Jessica is yours, Stephanie will never be yours, _never_…"_

Chris woke up with a start. He looked around, and he expected it. He knew that he was back in his own world. He knew that when the light hit the room, he'd be with Jessica, and everything would be back. Would Stephanie remember any of it, or was it all a dream, a strange dream that had seemed too vivid and full of life to his mind. He didn't want to see blonde hair, he didn't want to be with Jessica, he wanted Stephanie. No, the dream, the other Chris had told him that his time was up, hadn't he? The dream was starting to fade from his consciousness, but he felt the feeling of loss and remorse from it, and he knew that it was over, it was all over.

He laid back and closed his eyes, he never wanted it to end. He wanted to stay there forever where it felt safe, where it felt good, where it felt…right. It was always so right with Stephanie and he didn't want to go back to reality, and yet, here he was, back in reality. He wiped at his eyes, willing the burning to cease. He didn't want to cry for what he had lost because it had never been his to begin with. He was playing in a life that wasn't his, that was never his life and would never be his life.

"Chris, go to sleep."

Wait, that voice, that voice, he knew that voice, "Steph…"

"Did you have a bad dream?" She knew him too well. Sometimes he'd wake up from these dreams and he would just lie there, and she would wake up and tell him to go back to sleep, reassuring him that she was there with just those few words. If he knew someone was there, it didn't make them seem so bad or scary, and Stephanie was always there to assuage those fears, like she had the innate ability to know when he was awake. Like right this second…

"Yeah, I did," he told her.

"What about?" she asked.

"I saw the other Chris, the one whose life this really is, and he told me to take care of his kids because they weren't mine, and then he said that it wasn't going to last."

"What a strange dream? Why would you dream about another Chris?"

"What do you mean why would I dream about another Chris?" he asked. "I mean, it was probably _the_ other Chris."

"You're the only Chris I know," she yawned and cuddled into him. "Although I wouldn't mind two of you. I could have one to myself while the other one could run all the errands and take care of the kids. There _should_ be another Chris."

"The Chris that lives in this universe," he explained, but she was already falling asleep. She was so tired she didn't even know who she was at the moment probably. He kissed her forehead and fell back asleep, dreams and everything leaving his mind as he held the woman he loved in his arms.

The next day the whole incident was forgotten about as Stephanie and Chris went about their normal routine, which was becoming more and more familiar by the second. Everything was just falling into place for them, and it was settling into a calm. Chris didn't know if that meant that the storm was coming in or if this was just how things were going to be. He wished for the latter of the two options, but he couldn't help but feel like a storm was fast approaching.

"So you're really okay with Joanie being pregnant?" he asked her the next morning after she had dropped off Harper at preschool.

"Why wouldn't I be? He's her husband here, not mine," she pointed out. "Besides, I don't see the big deal, I have Harper and Kolt, they're my babies, let Joanie and Paul have their own baby here. I'm guessing that this Stephanie didn't care."

"She never dated Paul here."

"Only you," she said with a happy smile. She closed her eyes a moment and furrowed her brow and Chris took note, but didn't say anything.

"What was it like being married to Paul, I mean, really? Was he nice? He wasn't that nice backstage or anything. Did he have any redeeming qualities whatsoever?"

Stephanie took pause for a moment, looking over at Chris, who was playing with Kolt's foot as he held him. She stared at him for a moment, studying him, but he just looked curious and amused by the smile on Kolt's face. She looked down, blinking a little bit, trying to think of something to say, but nothing was coming.

"I can't…I don't remember actually," she said, giving him a confused look. "I can't seem to recall anything about it, I don't know, I must be tired or something, but I remember it being pleasant. It was a pleasant marriage and he was nice enough to me."

"That's good, I'm glad he wasn't like his on-screen persona. He seems happy with Joanie."

"Yes, he does seem very happy. He never acted that way towards me, I guess that meant we weren't supposed to be," she said, still trying to wrack her brain for something, but it was so preoccupied with Chris she wasn't able to think. "I think I'm different here too."

"You do?"

"More relaxed," she said. "Like I can breathe. I don't know, it feels better, everything feels better, like it's right, like this is all so right and everything I've ever lived before just was slightly off. Like _I _was slightly off."

"Maybe that world was impacted, you know, like the ripple effect. Maybe we were always supposed to be together," he reasoned.

"Oh, aren't we getting a little bit of an ego, Chris," she told him, giving him a look. "The world does not revolve around you, my dear. Maybe a lot of people's lives rippled at the same time. Maybe we're not the only ones. Who knows, right? Damn it, why can't I think of anything pertaining to Paul?"

"You're tired," he told her, "and this life is getting to you, that's all, you have so much to think about here, it's easy to forget what once was. Plus, Kolt doesn't sleep through the night, and you're not used to that."

"You're right," she agreed, running a hand over her face. "Maybe I should take a nap or something, recharge my batteries."

"Sounds like a solid idea, I can take Kolt for a walk around the neighborhood, maybe get a paper. Hey, maybe because we're together, peace is going to erupt all over the world."

"You really think that we've had that kind of impact on the world?" she asked, smirking a little as she tried to hold in her giggles.

"With you by my side, I think anything is possible," he told her, kissing her lightly. "I love you so much."

"I love you too, always have," she told him, running her hand across his cheek as she went in for another kiss. Chris went upstairs to get Kolt ready to go outside and Stephanie settled herself into the comfy cushions of the couch, resting her hands underneath her head as she started to doze, a fitful sleep that constantly kept her between the waking world and the world of dreams, and she felt like she was a part of the world, but yet she was floating away slowly.

"_You broke him in your world, you know?"_

"_Broke who?" Stephanie asked. _

_Another Stephanie laughed as she lounged on a chaise, a red velvet chaise. The other Stephanie was decked out in a gold dress, and she looked like Cleopatra or something. Stephanie wanted to go over there, but she stood rooted in her place. She couldn't move and she looked down to make sure that she wasn't cemented in or something._

"_Chris, you broke Chris. How the hell could you not tell that he wanted that baby?"_

"_There was no baby though."_

"_Yeah, but when you both thought there was, he was excited and you chose to ignore it because you didn't want to disappoint your family, _you_ didn't want to own up to your relationship."_

"_And you did?"_

"_Yes, I did," she said with a scoff, "I love Chris, and I would've never, ever made him feel like he wasn't one of the most important things in the world to me. I'm just sorry that my other being was such a bitch she couldn't recognize that Chris just wanted to be something to you."_

"_He was everything to me," Stephanie protested._

"_Yes, that's why he lied about cheating on you, because he felt _so_ loved," the other Stephanie said. "You were such a great girlfriend he felt he had to _lie_ so that you would hate him. He gave up everything for you! Everything! And you couldn't come clean?"_

"_I was scared."_

"_I wasn't, I guess I have all the confidence and you have all the fear. I don't know, Stephanie, I mean, I love the guy and everything, and I would never treat him the way that you treated him."_

"_I didn't want to treat him like that. I would've told…" she said sadly. "I would've!"_

"_Yeah, if you had been pregnant. That's a great thing, oh, tell your parents when you have to because there's no way that you're hiding a pregnancy."_

"_I was twenty-one!" she protested. "I didn't know what I wanted, I was young, I was stupid, I made a mistake. You didn't, I get that, okay, I get that you did everything in your power to make sure that you kept Chris, and I envy you for that."_

"_Good, you should, because it's not going to last, Stephanie, you know that right, it's not going to last, and you're going to lose it all. Paul is an asshole, by the way. I cannot stand him. He's so much nicer in my world, I think Joanie took the rough edges out, what the hell did _you_ do to him to make him such an asshole?"_

"_Nothing."_

"_Just take care of my kids, okay? Just take care of them…"_

Stephanie woke up, alone and sweating. She must've remembered Chris's dream from last night because it was eerily similar to what he had said. She looked around the apartment, wondering if her time here was closing, if she'd lose everything that she had gained her. She wanted to cling to this, this perfect like that fell into her lap. She wanted her penthouse, her car, her husband, her kids, her life…she wanted all of this. Would it end soon? Was she facing a dark future where she would remember what she could've had in the face of what she really had? That would break her heart.

Yet, she still couldn't recall a clear memory of being married to Paul. She knew how she felt being married to him. She knew that she was married to him, but she was just so tired and so overwhelmed that she couldn't form a clear picture in her mind. But that didn't matter, she reasoned with herself. She wasn't living that life right now, so why would she have to remember.

Who wanted to remember being married to Paul anyways?


	25. Chapter 25

Chris rocked Kolt a couple more times until the little boy was fast asleep. Chris and Stephanie had quickly learned that Kolt slept more soundly if you made sure he was totally asleep before you put him down. If you didn't, he'd wake up ten minutes later, crying and whining and wanting attention. When he saw the little boy was indeed fast asleep, he laid him carefully into the crib on the far side of the room. He watched him for a few moments, making sure he was asleep before walking out of the room.

He walked down the hallway and peeked his head into Harper's room, and he felt like he had done this a million times before, not just for the past however long he and Stephanie had been here. He hadn't been counting the days or the hours since they had entered this life, and now all the days were starting to blend together for him, getting to the point where all the days seemed to fit into one until he couldn't think back to when he had woken up to Stephanie's screaming. It was like that day was a dream now and this was his reality, his everyday.

He listened to Harper's even breathing for a few moments, comforted by the small sound, and the small body in the big bed next to the window. The moonlight was just shining through the slat in her drapes, casting an angelic-like glow the little girl. Perhaps she was an angel, sent down to give him something he hadn't known that he'd needed for the past however long it had been since he and Stephanie had broken up, the date hazing in his mind, drowned out by the cacophony that was his love for his daughter.

He couldn't help himself as he stepped further into her room, just wanting to watch her sleep and revel in the fact that he and Stephanie could have something as precious as this little girl. He didn't have kids in his other life, and in the other world, he wasn't sure that he had even wanted them? Wasn't there something about Jessica wanting to have kids with him? He could vaguely recall an argument, or a discussion, but it was so faint in his brain, like it was moving away at light speed. All he could remember was seeing the Jessica he knew now, the kind of slut.

He sat down on the floor across from her bed and just watched her sleep for a moment, her small hands tucked neatly under her head, which was practically buried into her pillow. Her covers were lower than when he had tucked her in, so she had probably been kicking around in her sleep and her brown curls were disheveled and falling in her face. Chris smiled a little, seeing so much of Stephanie in her features. She'd be a beauty, he knew that already. It still left him in awe that he and Stephanie could have such beautiful children.

He looked out the window, the light catching his eye, and he closed his eyes for a moment…

_Her lip was quivering ever so slightly, but he could tell she was trying to be brave. Stephanie was brave and she wanted to be just like her, brave and strong enough to act like nothing in the world bothered her, but that small quiver in her bottom lip gave her away. She looked at Chris pleadingly, her arms open towards him._

"_Daddy," she said, and her voice was strong, but she was trying to hide._

"_What happened, Princess?" he asked her, though he could see as clear as day what had happened._

"_I fell," she told him. "It hurt."_

"_I bet it did," he said, picking her up. "What happened to your knee?" he asked her, looking down at the scrape on her knee._

"_I was running and I fell, and it hurts, Daddy, it hurts," she said, her voice very quiet, like she didn't want anyone to know."_

"_You know, you're very brave for not crying," he told her as they walked back towards their apartment building from the park across the street. _

"_Like Mommy?" she asked expectantly, her eyes widening just the tiniest bit, looking deep for that sense of approval. She wanted to demonstrate how she could be just like her mommy, how she could be strong and not back down from anything._

"_Just like Mommy," he told her. _

"'_Cause Mommy wouldn't cry," Harper told him definitively._

"_Nope, she wouldn't," he responded as the elevator went up, up, up to their penthouse. He took her into the bathroom and sat her right on the counter as he grabbed the rubbing alcohol and a Spongebob Squarepants band-aid for her knee. He put some of the alcohol on a cotton pad and warned her, "This is going to sting, okay?"_

_She nodded and winced greatly but didn't make a peep when he put the alcohol on her knee. Just like Stephanie, he thought to himself with a smile. The little girl was just like her, looks and everything. Stephanie had nary screamed nor cursed when giving birth to both Harper and Kolt, and now Harper was emulating her down to the tee. One band-aid later and the little girl was running down the hallway to go play with her dolls as Chris watched her, wondering how he was so lucky to end up with two Stephanies, okay, so there was a little bit of sarcasm there, but God help him, he loved them both._

_They were like his stars, lighting up his life like even the shiniest building couldn't._

"Chris…" He opened his eyes and squinted in the dim light. He could just make out Stephanie's shape as she hovered over him. He yawned and looked at her in confusion, wondering why she had woken him up. "You fell asleep."

"Huh?" he asked, turning to the side and seeing that he had fallen asleep on the floor of Harper's room. "I don't even remember falling asleep."

"You must've been worn out. I spent the past ten minutes looking for you, I didn't think you'd be in here," she told him, offering him a hand. He took it gratefully and she grunted as she helped him to his feet. "What are you doing in here anyways?"

"I was checking on her and she just looked so beautiful in the light that I wanted to watch her sleep and I guess I closed my eyes and dozed off," he told her. She gave a soft laugh as she took her other hand to clasp his in between hers.

"You should let her sleep," she said gently. "Come on, let's get you to bed."

"I'm really not all that tired," he told her.

"And that's why you fell asleep on our daughter's floor," she said, and the way she said Harper was their daughter just sounded so natural off her lips that he felt like he had been hearing that forever, like she had never not been theirs, like Harper had always been _theirs_.

"Okay, I concede, I guess I am more tired than I thought I was," he relented as she led him down the hallway to their bedroom. "Are you going to tuck me into bed, Mrs. Irvine?" He had to sneak that in there, testing its weight, the way it rolled off his tongue, and once again he was struck by how natural it sounded off of his lips, like she had always held that title, like other wedding rings and other ceremonies didn't exist for him.

"No," she told him. He pouted before she continued, "I'm not going to tuck a grown man into bed, that's your job."

"You tuck Harper into bed."

"She's three," Stephanie told him, "and besides, I like her better."

"Hey!" he protested, pulling her down onto the bed with him. They fell together in a heap of laughter as Chris pinned her to the bed. "Do you wanna?"

"Wait, so just because we're married and in love, you think that you can just say, 'do you wanna?' and that's supposed to what? Make me hot in the pants for you? Make me want to rip my panties off and offer myself to you?"

"I was hoping," he said playfully.

She pushed him off, "Go to sleep." She started to get up, but he reached blindly for her hand, getting it and holding it in his.

"Are you coming to bed?"

"Not just yet."

"Then stay with me until I fall asleep," he pleaded and she couldn't say no to him, so she settled herself into the bed, sitting cross-legged as he went under the covers. She laughed a little at how it did seem like she was tucking him. She glanced towards the bathroom and he spoke, "I brushed my teeth already."

"Good," she said.

"Talk to me, Steph, just so I can hear your voice and let it be that last thing I hear today," he told her and his voice held such a seriousness to it that it took her breath away for a moment. His words hadn't even meant to be something special, but like most everything that Chris said to her, that's how they ended up.

"What do you want me to say?" she asked him as he clutched at his pillow. "And don't tell me that you want to hear a bedtime story, because I don't think it's very manly to want to hear the story of Goldilocks when you're thirty-six years old."

"Tell me about how I proposed," he mumbled.

"Oh," she said, smiling wistfully as she sat there a moment, trying to conjure up images of how it would go, how he would pop the question to her, how he would ask her and how she would respond. She rubbed his lower back through the blanket, but then slipped inside the blanket and into his shirt to rub his back, and he moaned softly at the contact. She spent a few moments thinking and thinking, trying to formulate a story in her head as Chris reveled in the soft caresses of her fingers, her nails occasionally scratching him softly, not leaving a mark for more than a moment.

Then it came to her, not like lightning, but like a slow mist that settled over her brain, like suddenly something had floated and flitted into her mind and she caught it just in time and she smiled to herself like she was actually remembering, like a memory had settled itself into her brain and decided to reside their for all time.

"We were in bed," she started. "We had just gotten over our pregnancy scare and we were lying in bed the next morning, and you were looking at me, and you had this tentative look on your face, like you couldn't speak or something, or you didn't know what to say. Then I reached out to touch your face, and you took your hand and you grabbed it in mine."

"And I kissed it," he said through heavy lids.

"Yeah, you kissed it," she continued, "and you told me that you had really wanted that baby, even though it never really existed, and I smiled a little and told you that I didn't, that it would've scared the hell out of me and I would've been scared, and you told me that you never would've let me do it alone."

"Because I'd never let you do anything alone, I'd never abandon you."

"Ever," she agreed, "and then you told me you loved me and this wasn't working out any longer and my mouth ran dry and I asked you why, and you told me that you needed to meet my family, you needed to not be a secret and you had hoped that the baby, this thing that never was, was the way to my family, to my heart, and I told you that you already had my heart. But you said you needed everyone to know it."

"And you felt?" he asked, genuinely curious.

"I was scared, still, so scared," she told him, closing her eyes momentarily as the guilt shook through her, "I didn't want to, I wanted to leave well enough alone, but your eyes, they were so clear, and so earnest that I couldn't, not lying in our bed, not together after you had stuck by me through the pregnancy scare, I couldn't…I didn't."

"You told…"

"I said we could tell them the next weekend, I would bring you to dinner, and if I was disowned, I'd still have you and we'd be okay, because you were in WCW anyways and my father couldn't fire you."

"And then I told you that I loved you and always would."

"You did," she said, "Then you told me that you loved me, and you needed me, and nothing in your life was worth anything if I wasn't in it, and you tucked my hair behind my ear, and somehow, you had the ring in your hand, and you held it up in front of me and you just whispered--"

"I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where, I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride, so I love you because I know no other way than this: where I does not exist, nor you, so close that your hand on my chest is my hand, so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep," he whispered.

"Love Sonnet XVII by Pablo Neruda," she breathed. "A poem because you knew that I loved poetry. Then you asked if I would marry you, and I didn't cry, but I nodded, speechless, but I really wanted to shout out because I loved you and I didn't even care, I just…I didn't expect it, but I wanted it…"

She looked to him to respond, but saw that he had fallen asleep and she let go of his hand slowly, but made no move to get off the bed. She was happy to watch him sleep like he had watched Harper sleep. It had seemed like so long since she had watched him sleep, and so she just took a moment to reminisce and look back at them. She turned her head towards the pictures that were in the room, scattered around and giving the room that lived in feeling.

She looked down at her left hand where her wedding ring and engagement ring were, tightly wound around her finger, wrapping up two perfect memories into one little finger. She toyed with the engagement ring a moment, seeing Chris whispering the poem as he had just now, his voice low and filled with love and the longing to marry her. She had never had anyone long to marry her like he had, or would've, or did…or…something. Paul had never longed, not that she could remember, there was no longing to his voice when he would speak to her, and she found that she didn't want him to long for her, not like she wanted Chris to.

She could've had that story, all of it, if she had heard the longing in his voice for that baby. She put her hand to her stomach where nothing resided and she wished…did she wish at all? Wouldn't wishing just get her another scenario, another world, another…whatever this was? Did she wish that night, was that it? Did she look up into the stars, those same stars always staring back at her and had she wished the times she was living away, had she made the stars heed her wish, had looking up at them for the first time in forever granted her the impossible?

Maybe, maybe not, hard to say…but if she had just heard that longing, if she had known he wanted that baby and everything that came with it, she would've lived this fully and completely, or maybe something better, if that even existed. But voices of the past were only haunts now, not real in this world, evaporated like hot dew in the summer.

She got up from the bed to let Chris sleep in peace, but she stole one last glance before turning off the light and closing the door softly behind her.

Chris opened his eyes slowly and darted them to the clock next to his bed. He had only been asleep for about forty-five minutes, but he didn't feel like sleeping any longer. He sat up, looking to the side next to him, but it was empty and un-slept in. He looked around, but Stephanie wasn't there. He got out of bed and padded out into the hallway towards the children's rooms, but turned when he could see her on the balcony from the landing where he stood. He could only see her back, but she was leaning against the railing and looking up at the night sky obscured by the light of the buildings around them, but she was still looking. He ran a hand through his hair and leaned on the railing of the stairs, just taking her in right now.

There was a slight breeze since they were so high up and it whipped her long hair against her back, and he remembered when she would just wear it down for him, and her hair had been so silky smooth. When they had worked together in 2000, he always noted that her hair did look like a rat's next, just like he said in front of the masses. It was all curls and piles on top of her head and it had lost the silky smoothness that it had once had. It wasn't that she looked like a whore or anything, that was her job after all, but it wasn't _his_, she wasn't _his_ Stephanie.

That hair would tickle his chest as they fell asleep and he remembered the first time they had slept together, no, not had sex, just slept together. There had been a storm, and she had been frightened because she was on such a high floor she swore that she could feel the building shaking up there and it was entirely possible that it was. They had been dating for a few weeks and by the luck of scheduling, the shows had been not too far away from each other, allowing them to stay in the same hotel. He had been on the second floor, a "safe" floor as she dubbed it, and he remembered opening his door to see her there, her eyes darting around uncomfortably, but still beautiful, she was always beautiful.

She had asked to stay the night, but he had no extra bed. She wasn't comfortable sleeping in the same bed with him, but he told her that he was a gentlemen and he wouldn't take advantage of her like that. She had believed him, how could she not, and she had climbed into bed, and he had held her, as if to protect her from the outside storm, which wouldn't get them anyways, but he liked the idea of being her protector, it was something he had been good at, a job he was born to play. He hadn't gotten to protect her for a long time, and now he was happy to be that guy again.

He was so fucking lucky.

She smiled as she felt his arms wrap around her waist from behind and hold her close, shielding her from the wind. "I thought you were asleep."

"Couldn't sleep, too lonely," he muttered as he rested his chin on her shoulder.

"How long do you think this is going to last?" she asked seriously, "For real, how long?"

"I don't know," he said.

"You have Jessica and--"

"Who?" he asked, and if she didn't know better, she would've thought he was serious, but he had to be sarcastic and she rolled her eyes a little.

"You know who I'm talking about," she told him lightly, slapping his hand a little.

"You mean my ex-girlfriend, why would I care about her?"

"I meant in our other lives," she told him, and she felt him tense for a moment and then pull away to shake his head a little before settling back in his previous position.

"Okay…"

"I mean, we can't stay forever, it would be weird…not bad weird, just…weird," she said. "I had a dream the other night, the other Stephanie, the real one, she told me that it wouldn't last, that this would last."

"It was a dream," he told her, "don't believe dreams."

"Or she was talking to me, you mentioned you had a similar dream."

"That's where your dream probably came from."

"Probably," she said, but she remained unconvinced. "I just find it odd is all. I just realize that this life isn't really ours, I mean, it is, is it ours?"

"Yes, it is ours, I'm Chris Irvine and you're Stephanie Irvine and we have children, this is all we've ever hoped for, and it's all ours, we have it really good here, Stephanie, really good, I'm not going to mess this up."

She shook her head, "Me neither, I wouldn't, but I just wonder how long we'll have it this good. Don't mind me, I'm being the pessimist here. I'm just…forgetting is all, and forgetting is a bad thing, it's not good at all."

"What are you forgetting?" he asked.

"The way things used to be," she told him. "The way that everything was before. The deeper I fall here, Chris, the deeper it all seems to become and I won't be able to escape it. I just…everything that happened is starting to become a haze for me."

"Like you're forgetting what really happened?"

"Exactly," she told him. "That's exactly it. It's like I want this life so much that I'm willing to discard the life that I used to have and that scares me a little, it'll be such a jolt when we go back…_if_ we go back."

"Yeah, if…"

They stayed in silence for a few moments, just looking out over the skyline, the lights of the city constantly lighting up everything, the city that never sleeps, hustle and bustle all the time and two people standing on a balcony, lost among it and not truly fitting in, slightly off from everything else, like they were at a slight slant while everything else was straight. They were just slightly slanted, leaning towards one direction, pulled there.

"The stars are the same here, this is our world…but…"

"It's always the buts," he said. "I wish I could tell you what was going to happen, I wish I could take everything away for you, the memories, the bad times, the not-so-bad times, but I can't. But let it fade, Stephanie, if it wants to fade, let it fade, I am."

"You're forgetting too?" she wondered, turning to face him, leaning back against the balcony, the height not scaring her so much as the future that she might face without him and without Harper and Kolt. That was much more scary than the highest high-rise. He placed his hands on the railing on either side of her, leaning forward to kiss her lightly.

"I'm forgetting too, because nothing there was anything I wanted. I wanted all of this, you know this," he told her softly. "This is what I always wanted, the kids, the life, everything…forgetting is easier."

"It's hard to remember Paul and what we had, I don't want to go back there…not when I'm so happy, are you happy?"

"I'm so happy, Steph," he told her. "Look around…I couldn't be anything but."

She nodded and looked down. "It's good, I don't want to go back."

"Neither do I," he admitted.

But would the swirling hands of fate swing their way? Would anything make sense ever again? There wasn't much time for that as Chris seized the moment at hand and leaned in to kiss her. She let him lift her up into his arms as she wrapped her legs around his waist. They kissed their way up to their bedroom, falling gently onto the slightly unkempt bed, the sheets tangling under them as the moment was theirs, at this moment everything was theirs and theirs alone, not Paul's, not Jessica's, just theirs, and they both knew they never wanted to leave this behind.

They were forgetting a past they never wanted…


	26. Chapter 26

A/N: Thanks for the reviews, keep them coming, please! :)

* * *

Life passed day to day, then from night to night. Things didn't really change for Chris and Stephanie as the days passed by. Honestly, it only seemed to become more and more familiar. Stephanie memorized the way to Harper's school, Chris knew exactly what time Kolt liked to be fed dinner, and they were falling more and more in love with the life that they were leading. It all became routine for them, but not in the sense that it ever became boring. No, it only seemed to get better and better as the moments extends to minutes, to hours, to days…

"Mommy, why can't I go out there with Daddy?" Harper asked. "Or Kolt, why can't Kolt go out there with Daddy?"

"Because you're very little," Stephanie explained to her daughter. "Daddy wouldn't want you to get hurt."

"But I wouldn't get hurt, Mommy, I'm strong," she said, "I can hang from the monkey bars at school for a _long_ time! I can show you next time we go to the park, and _then_ can I go out with Daddy?"

"No," Stephanie told her, shaking her head. "You are too young, Harper, do you see any other kids going out there?"

"No," she said sullenly, "but I'm different, Mommy, I'm different!"

"I know you're different, you're special," Stephanie told her, kneeling down to her level, "but what if you got hurt? Daddy would be very upset that you were out there with him and you got hurt, besides, we like to have the people that go out there be under contract."

"I can have one!"

"We don't generally write them up for kids," Stephanie said, standing up and taking her hand again. "So why don't we forget about that and you can just watch Daddy when he goes out there to wrestle."

"Mommy, am I going to be a wrestler?" Harper asked as they continued down the hallway to Chris's dressing room.

"Do you want to be?"

"Yup," she nodded. "Just like Daddy!"

"Well, not just like Daddy, because Daddy's a boy."

"Uh uh, Mommy, I can be just like Daddy because you said that boys and girls can do anything that they want to, and I want to be just like Daddy, and I can, Mommy, because I'm a girl, but I can do what boys do."

"Okay, sweetheart, you can do just what Daddy does," Stephanie said as she opened the door for her. Chris and Kolt were already inside and Chris had Kolt out of his carrier and was currently bouncing him around in his arms, as if he were trying to calm him down from something. "Chris, Harper wants to be just like you when she grows up."

"Is that so?"

"Yup," she nodded eagerly, "I'm going to be the…what do you say, Daddy?"

"The Highlight of the Night."

"Yeah, that's it!" she exclaimed. "That's what I'm going to be, Daddy, and everyone is going to love me, Daddy, do they love you?"

"I like to think so," he said, even though he was a heel right now so the fans weren't exactly in love with him, but they still liked him, he could tell because occasionally he'd get more cheers than whomever he was facing that particular night.

"Good," Harper nodded, "Is Kolt going to be a wrestler too?"

"He might be, if that's what he wants to do," Chris told her.

"Hey, I've got to talk to my father, do you mind watching them for a little bit, I'll be really quick, I just needed to ask him something about the script tonight. Can you handle them?"

"Of course I can," he said, "I'm their father, who better to take care of them than their father?"

"Thanks," she said lightly as she walked out into the hallway. She was a few steps to the right when she saw Paul walking her way up ahead. That dull ache she used to get while seeing him was completely gone now. It was like all the old memories that she used to have were being pushed aside in favor of the new memories.

For some reason, she felt like she was fading…well, not herself, not _her_, but everything that she knew. It wasn't like she felt like she was floundering or she didn't feel like herself, in fact it was the opposite, she felt like she was alive for the first time in a long time. With Paul, it hadn't been…no, she couldn't even remember how it had been with Paul, and that was the weird part. She felt like he had been a dream, something she had dreamt about, but then forgot as the hours waned and new dreams replaced the old ones.

Once upon a time, Chris had felt like a dream. When she was with Paul, it was like any past she had with Chris was something that she had just dreamed up one day when she had been bored. She couldn't even recall the burning jealousy that threatened to choke her the first time she saw Chris and Jessica at that Raw that seemed like a faint star in the distance, just enough that you could see it, but not _see_ it, or feel it. Everyday it was like that Stephanie faded, and this new, strong, beautiful Stephanie was taking over.

She wasn't upset with the change, how could she be? She had everything here. She had everything that at one point seemed so clear to her that she could taste it, that she could almost reach out and grab it. In one moment, in one lie that Chris had told her to spare his own feelings and to set her free, she saw that dream disappear like vapor, like the steam from a bath, growing ever colder as it became exposed to the air. But now she had it, she had grabbed it, and she was holding onto it like if she let one finger go, the entire thing would crumble.

So now, it wasn't like she was floundering, it felt living, finally.

Seeing Paul was just another part of her day, nothing special, nothing that made it different from going out to get the mail or some other mundane task. So she smiled, and she gave a short wave, and he stopped, and she stopped, and it was a lesson in average, really. It was a move that seemed no different from stopping to talk to anyone. This man wasn't her husband, this man didn't love her, nor know her, and had had never felt the warm rush of her breath as their lips met. And she was okay with that, because she'd rather give that up than lose this living that she had finally found.

"Paul, hello," she said with a kind smile, a smile reserved for an acquaintance.

"Hey, Steph, actually, I'm glad I'm ran into you," he said. "I wanted to talk to you about Joanie and her leave of absence, your dad said to come to you."

"Oh, yeah, of course, that's me, head of talent relations and all that," she said coyly.

"Yeah, well, obviously, Joanie can't work, not the regular schedule, so…I kind of don't want her on television, period, but she insists that she can do a storyline that doesn't involve her wrestling, but I was wondering if that was safe, if we could do that, I'm worried."

"Oh, for sure," Stephanie told him. "I was still on television until I was six months pregnant with Harper."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that, after you started to show, they just showed you from the chest up, right?"

"Yeah, because I wasn't exactly pregnant in the storyline, but if Joanie really wants to stay on television we can absolutely see if we can brainstorm some ideas for her and some storylines that the fans might like."

"Great, thanks," he said, patting her on the shoulder amicably.

He was about to walk away, when something struck Stephanie, "Hey, Paul?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"You and Joanie, you love her, right?"

"More than anyone knows," he admitted, "Why?"

"Would there be any circumstances under which you'd leave like…for another woman?" Stephanie asked. She didn't know why she asked it, she just felt compelled to know what was so different about this world. If this Stephanie had been who she was, who she had been, would it all have turned out the same? Did that other Paul just not love Joanie as much?

"Do you think that Chris is cheating on you?"

"No way," she said, "I was just wondering, because it was a concern that I had when I was pregnant both times," and here she lied, "that maybe Chris might fall out of love with me because I was stuck at home being pregnant and he was here, surrounded by pretty girls."

"You think that this might be a concern of Joanie?" Paul asked.

"Well, it might, I was just wondering how you might handle that, you know, if there were circumstances, because you know, that would be bad," she finished lamely.

"Well, yeah, I know, but…I can't even envision falling for someone else," he said honestly. "I've been with Joanie for a really long time now, and we've been through a lot, but I've never wanted to be with anyone else, I just haven't. She's…good for me."

"Good, because sometimes being at home and pregnant is very lonely," Stephanie said. "Well, send her over whenever."

"Thanks, Stephanie," Paul said as he began to walk away.

She stood there briefly, thinking to her own world, the one that was fading so rapidly in her mind. How had she not seen that Paul had loved Joanie so much? Oh, that's right, she had been blinded. She remembered now, she was so jealous of Chris, that burning jealousy had consumed her so she had taken to a relationship with Paul, had stolen him because she was hurt. Yes, that was coming back to her now, for just a second, as a reminder to her that things were better here, she was a better person here…she was the Stephanie that she knew she always could've been.

"Hey, little sis," Shane said, coming up and wrapping his arm around her. "You looked a little lost."

"No, not anymore," she told him earnestly, and that was really how she felt. It was like the song, you once were lost, but now you're found. She didn't necessarily feel like she had been found, but she had felt like she was lost, but now she felt like she was right where she belonged. It was disheartening that she had to be transported to a different dimension to feel this way, but she never would've had the gumption in her other life to make sure a bold move. She had settled in the other life, settled for what she could get, and she had never strived for more, but this trip had allowed her to take control and get what she truly wanted and needed in her life.

"So how are my niece and nephew, well I hope."

"They're great," she told him. "Harper told me that she wants to be just like Chris, and that she doesn't care if she's a girl because girls can do anything that boys can do."

"Except pee standing up," he joked and she groaned.

"You're gross."

"But you love me anyways."

"You're my brother," she said, "I kind of have to."

"I'm hurt, Steph," he told her as he pulled her closer, "anyways, Dad wants to talk to Chris about upcoming feuds that he's thinking about. We really liked the one he had against Adam so I think we're going to revisit it, you know, like they still have bad blood for each other."

"Sounds good," she said, "Can you ever picture Chris taking a leave of absence?"

"Is he?" Shane asked, alarmed that his WWE champion might be leaving.

"No, I was just wondering since he's the top of the mountain," Stephanie said. Things were so skewed in that other existence, everything here made sense to her, like she had actually lived it while everything that had happened in the other world felt like it was slightly askew. "It'd be weird to lose him, right?"

"Hell yeah, the show revolves around him," Shane said. "He's been our most consistent guy for the past…forever, he's never been injured, he's charismatic, great in the ring, he's your husband, what's not to like?"

"And he's never used his power."

"Yeah, I think that's why Dad likes him, he totally married you because he loved you."

"Well, we were together before he ever came into the company," Stephanie pointed out.

"Yeah, but even then, Dad had his…well, qualms about the two of you, especially since Chris's contract was running out and then suddenly you're bringing him home, and Dad thought he would use that as a bargaining chip, but he never did, Dad trusts him."

"Yeah, Chris would never use his power."

Hadn't Paul tried to use his power? She couldn't remember right now. But she tried, she tried very hard to remember if he had ever used his power to do something. She could recall matches, him trying to decide the outcome of…a pain shot through her head and she shook her head to clear it, putting a finger up to her temple. Just like that, the memory was gone, in a flash, like it had never existed and instead, all she could think about was an argument, Chris and her father, an argument.

_She was standing outside a door in her parent's house. It was the door to her father's study, and she was standing there, alone. She could hear Shane and Marissa in the other room and distantly she could hear her mother clattering something in the kitchen. But she didn't care, she just cared about what was going on beyond this door._

"_As I understand it, you want to come into the company."_

"_I do."_

"_You're engaged to my daughter."_

"_I am," Chris said nonchalantly. "I fail to see how the two are related."_

"_If you marry my daughter--"_

"_That would be when," Chris interrupted, "_When_ I marry your daughter."_

"_Of course," Vince said, like he hadn't meant to say "if" when he actually had meant it all along, "_When_ you marry my daughter, you will be almost assuredly inheriting a huge chunk of this company. Stephanie gets her shares when she turns twenty-five."_

"_That's cool," Chris shrugged. "What does this have to do with me wanting to come to the company? I told you what the deal was, my contract is running out, and I don't like WCW, plus being with the WWF is easier because Stephanie and I would be in the same city at the same time, I fail to see the problem here."_

"_Why are you with my daughter? I've been good up until now, but it's very convenient that you're marrying her and now you want to come into the company."_

"_Well…like I said, my contract with WCW is running out, and I don't like it there, I feel like I'm not getting the push I deserve."_

"_And what do you think you deserve, Chris? Do you think that you deserve to be a main-eventer? Do you think that you deserve to get the WWF Championship upon your arrival? What are you looking for?"_

"_I'm looking for a bigger push than I have now, which is to say being pushed at all, that's it. I trust your booking, wherever there's a place for me, I'm fine with it," Chris said, starting to get testy. "You know, Vince, I know that we don't really know a lot about each other, you just see me as the guy who is using your daughter, but I'm not. I'm well aware that I'm a wrestler, I'm well aware how that makes me look, but let me reassure you that the reason I'm with Stephanie…is solely for Stephanie. Period, end of story, and if you have a fucking problem with that, then I don't give a shit, if you don't want to give a contract, fine, fuck it, I'm still marrying your daughter because I love her, and I'm not going to let your petty and misguided questioning get in the way of that. So I'll be seeing you, Vince, nice talking with you," he finished sarcastically. He got up from the chair and headed towards the door._

"_Chris, wait," Vince said. "How long do you want a contract?"_

_Chris turned around, "So what, you take to someone being an asshole to you?"_

"_If you're willing to talk like that to your fiancée's father, well, you're a good enough man for me."_

"_This is one twisted family."_

She put her hand to her forehead, "I'm sorry, Shane, I'm getting a headache, I'm going to go to Chris's locker room. Can you tell Dad I'll meet up with him later."

"Yeah, sure, feel better, Steph," he told her as she turned on her heel to go back to Chris and her family. It was strange this feeling right now, it was something she hadn't felt before, and it was just…it was like…she couldn't explain it, really, and when she tried to, when she tried to form it into words, it was even stranger. It was like she had this one memory and suddenly it was gone and then she saw something entirely different in her head.

It was like…her memories were being replaced.


	27. Chapter 27

"Do you think that we'll get to stay here?"

Chris looked up at Stephanie as she was about to walk down the stairs. He was on his laptop lounging on the couch as she went up to comfort Kolt, who had been crying. She stood on the landing, leaning her arms on the railing as she gazed down at him from her high perch. He set the laptop down on the coffee table and leaned back against the cushions, folding his arms behind his head.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, do you think that this is our life now…forever?" she asked.

"How could I even begin to answer that?" he asked. "That's a really loaded question right there, I mean, who can predict the future, not me."

"I know that," she said as she rubbed her forehead with her right hand, as if trying to ease something from her mind. "I'm just starting…I'm starting to believe that this is it for us. I'm starting to believe that this is my life, does that make sense to you?"

"Well, we've been living it," he said. "It was bound to feel like our life if we've been living it."

"No, not like that, I know that day in and day out we've been this Chris and Stephanie, I understand that to the extent that it's understandable, which isn't much," she said, then chuckled at how little sense she was making, "wow, that couldn't have sounded more convoluted if I tried. What I mean is…I'm starting to think that this is what we get."

"What we get for what?"

"I'm not sure…you once said that this life was a gift, but what if it's a permanent gift, I mean, what if it's not a glimpse, or some way to bridge our other lives, what if _this_ is it?"

"Then we go on living," he told her with a smile. They gazed at each other for a moment, silent acceptance seeming to flow through them through that moment like a spirit floating between them and inhabiting them. They knew they were in this for better or for worse, and it was like a silent agreement to see this to the finish, if there was a finish.

"I know you think that's so easy, but these aren't our lives," she said, eyes turned heavenward. "I don't know, it just seems all too simple and that's when you start to overanalyze."

"What's on your mind, Steph?"

"When I was speaking with Paul, when I was talking to him the other day, the week before that, and so forth and so on, it was nothing…there was nothing there," she explained. "It was like he was just this guy who worked for me, who I worked with, an employee, a friend, acquaintance, he was a nothing to me."

"And this bothers you because…"

"Because if I can't remember much about him in the other world, then why did I feel like I was aching when I first saw him here, where did that feeling go, Chris? Why did it just change?"

"Because this is what we wanted all along…isn't it?" he asked, his eyes boring into hers. He didn't know how he'd take it if this wasn't what she wanted. Maybe she had changed her mind in all this confusion. People did it all the time; they changed their minds, their heads getting screwed on tighter or looser, their thinking skewed and distorted. She could've easily changed her mind, this could've easily become a nightmare.

She squelched his fears a moment later, "This _is_ what I've wanted, but this change is so sudden, I don't think…it doesn't feel like I ever might've loved Paul, I don't think I loved him, I don't even feel anything for him except the feelings of mutual respect."

"That's good."

Stephanie came down the steps and she sat facing Chris on the couch, just barely able to sit in the meager amount of room that he gave her to sit. "Chris, I'm feeling like…my head isn't in the right place."

"What do you mean?"

"Are you forgetting? Tell me, Chris, tell me about you and Jessica, tell me everything you know about her, tell me how you met up with her again…tell me how you started dating her after me, tell me," she pleaded.

He made a face full of disgust, "Why would I want to recall…"

"Just do it, please, for me…"

"Okay," he said, taking his hand in hers. "Um…well, I remember that I ran into her, and…"

And then it was gone, the memory was just…gone. He couldn't think of anything, any good reason for starting to see Jessica. Hadn't he had a reason at the time? Was it a matter of convenience or did he actually see a future with her? His brain could choose neither, instead being filled with thoughts of Stephanie, the way her face would've shone when he quietly proposed to her…or was that the way that her face had actually been? Was she aglow with happiness like that, was the torment of not knowing if she was pregnant washed away in that one second when everything came together?

"Well…"

"I can't seem…I don't know," he shrugged helplessly. "I just don't know."

"See!" she said as if this would all make sense to him. "Do you get it now?"

"Get what?"

"Our heads, they're not our heads!"

"So we're brainwashed?" he joked.

"No," she said, shifting so she was laying on top of him, cuddling her head into his strong chest, inhaling the scent that she was so achingly familiar with, that seemed like it had been there for so long, wafting into her nose, following her until he was the only thing that surrounded her. He held her to him with his right arm, running patterns on her lower back like his finger was a paintbrush and her lower back was a blank canvas waiting for the next masterpiece to be born.

"So what is it then?"

"I just think that we're forgetting, that something is making us forget."

"I think it's how kickass this life is," he told her, kissing the crown of her head. "I mean, it's easy to forget how shitty it used to be when we've got so much here."

"And we do have so much, don't we?" she asked rhetorically.

"That we do," he agreed.

"How do you explain how we can remember things that we couldn't remember before?" she asked him, trying to get back to the seriousness of the conversation. There were so many things that she didn't understand around her, and so many things she wanted to understand. If she was indeed slowly becoming something else, she wanted to be aware of it, and if it meant she could keep this moment and all the moments before and after, she wanted to embrace it, to enjoy every new thing that came to her.

"You're asking me to explain things that I can't explain," he said.

"You can't remember Jessica and I can't remember Paul, that's not normal, Chris, when I try to remember Paul, I remember you, and not even when we were together before, but when we were together, here, and you don't just get those on a whim, Chris."

"I can't explain the things that happen, Steph, I just…"

"That's been happening to you too though, right? Please tell me that I haven't been the only one experiencing it. It's not even like an 'out-of-body seeing the past that I had kind of thing,' it's more like, an in-body kind of thing, like I felt them, like I knew…you have that too, you said something as much, right?"

"I've had it too, don't worry, Steph, I've had it too," he reassured her.

"We're changing, Chris," she said. "We're changing and becoming different."

"What? Like aliens?"

"You're not funny," she told him, "this isn't funny."

"I know, but you just have to ride the wave," he said. "It is weird, this progression, but what are we going to do about it, request that we go back to that other place when we don't even know how we got _here_? I'm going to stick it out to the finish."

"Do you want to forget everything?"

"I don't know," he replied honestly. "I don't know if I want to completely forget Jessica and leave her in the past. I mean, I did spend a lot of time with her, I was married to her…for however long we were married…I don't think I'll completely forget her, I did date her here, however briefly. What about you?"

"I want to forget," she said bluntly and at this he looked down at her. Feeling his eyes on her she lifted her head to meet his eyes. "I liked Paul, don't get me wrong, and I think…I think a part of me loved him, but you broke my heart, Chris…you broke it so completely that it never would've healed, so yeah, I want to forget."

"Steph, I'm so sorry, I was hurt and I was angry," he said, and he looked so contrite in that moment, so sorrowful that it brought tears to her eyes. "If I could've done anything else, _anything_ that would've let me keep you…I would have done that."

"Don't lie," she said, giving him a sad, yet hopeful smile. "You wouldn't have because you didn't choose to then, we're not given the gift of hindsight, so you wouldn't have changed anything."

"I can wish it though."

"Well yeah, you can wish it."

"I didn't want to break your heart."

"I didn't want you to think that you meant nothing to me," she shrugged, then laid her head back down. "See, forgetting is a good thing."

"You've got me again."

Stephanie yawned and stretched a little bit. "I'm really tired, I think that I'm going to head to bed and watch TV or fall asleep or something includes being in my warm bed," she told him, getting up off of him, "feel free to join me whenever."

"I'm insulted that you didn't find me a comfortable enough bed."

"Too hard," she winked as she went back upstairs, leaving him down there to close up shop. He picked up the forgotten laptop and sat up a little, resting it in his lap.

He went back to watching the scene before him on the DVD player. He had been curious about the storylines that had progressed here, and was watching some of the older shows to try and get a feel for what had happened. Much to his surprised, not much was different. He figured that maybe he and Stephanie being together had caused a ripple effect, changing everything in its path, but it really hadn't, at least not up until what he had seen.

"_I think an affair storyline would be good," Chris said, looking around the table at the production meeting. He was sitting next to Stephanie, and he knew that he hadn't brought this up with her, but he didn't think that he would have to since it wasn't that big a deal._

"_You think that's where it should go?" Vince asked._

_Chris shrugged, "Sure, I mean, Steph and I…well, let's just say that I've gotten some input and everyone thinks we should be together. So why not say that we have been?"_

"_Good point," Vince said. "Paul, how do you feel about this?"  
_

"_I'm fine with it, maybe this could even lead to something with me and Joanie in the future. Like…maybe we could feud against those two."_

"_That's right," Vince said slowly, "I'm liking this more and more."_

"_Cool," Chris said, looking to Stephanie, "What do you think, Steph?"_

"_Oh, well, yeah, I don't like it," she said, "I'm sorry, Chris, it's just…I don't want to flaunt our marriage out there. I know that we're married and I know that probably everyone knows that by now, I just…I don' t know what kind of backlash that would receive."_

"_We want backlash though."  
_

"_I don't want favoritism."_

"_Steph, I've held the World Title twice since I've been here, twice, I hardly think that's favoritism."_

"_Okay, you're right…go ahead with it."_

The thought startled Chris, this memory startled him and he became like a frantic animal. The affair storyline, everything that went along with that, was that the ripple? Paul would've had no reason to be against it, being with Joanie as he was. He remembered how Paul had hated the idea, shot it down and that was the end of that. He had suggested it to be near Stephanie again. It had been months since they had a storyline opposite each other and whenever they worked together, whenever he got to feel that chemistry that they had, it reminded him that he could feel like that, it reminded him that his time with Stephanie was real.

He went to search through the DVD's, finding the one for WrestleMania X-8. He put it in the DVD player underneath the TV this time, needing to see this on a bigger screen. He sat back as it began to play and immediately went to his match versus Paul. They showed the video package before it and he sat enraptured as he was assaulted with what could've been…or what had been rather.

There they were, kissing, hugging, knocking down Paul like he was the scum of the Earth. It was surreal, watching what had only played out in his mind's eye before this very moment. He leaned forward in his seat as he kept watching, wanting to commit to memory even if every time he saw a new clip it was like his mind knew what was going to happen next, as if the whole storyline hadn't just been in his imagination, but that his imagination was the real thing, a story played out to its grand finale.

Then the ripple began…the ripple he thought would change everything was right there in his eyes. He had thought that it would've been the day he proposed to Stephanie but had broken up with her in the other life, but it wasn't really, not in his professional life, that hadn't changed that much. No, the ripple for this, the one that set everything in motion, the one that made him never want to leave his job for something he thought he could find in the wild, blue yonder was right here, a set of images progressing, moving forward…

Rippling like stones falling into water.

It all made sense. Him not leaving, him holding the belt, every storyline he had seen since he had gotten here, it all made sense, they were different, so different that he thought it just had always been that way, but he had found the moment where it all changed.

He had retained that night.

That was the stone that caused all the ripples.


	28. Chapter 28

"So do you want to know why I'm the WWE champion?"

Stephanie glanced at Chris and cocked her head to the side. "What kind of question is that?"

"It's not a question, I'm just asking if you want to know something about the world that we live in, I thought you might be interested," he huffed, going back to concentrating on pushing Kolt's stroller as they walked down the street. It was such a nice day, they decided that a walk around the neighborhood was in order and maybe a trip to the park.

"Okay," she indulged him, "why are the WWE champion?"

"No, forget about it," he muttered.

"Chris, come on," she said to him. "You know you want to tell me."

"No, I don't," he responded. "You're obviously not interested and I'm not going to tell you something that you're obviously not interested in. It's a waste of my breath to tell you if you don't really want to know."

"So now you're mad at me?" she asked as if she were speaking to a child. It was nice to know that even when things were so good they could still fight and be the people that they were. Things were never going to be gumdrops and rainbows, and she liked that there was an inconsistency in this world, just like there was in the other one. People were alike wherever they were.

"I'm not mad at you," he told her, but his pace started to quicken just the tiniest bit.

"Chris, don't go so fast, you know that Harper can't walk that fast," Stephanie said as Harper continued to meander next to Stephanie as she held the little girl's hand. Harper kept getting distracted by various things and if Chris suddenly decided to move faster, he'd be leaving them in the dust.

Chris slowed down, looking over his shoulder at Stephanie and Harper, who was clinging to Stephanie's hand and seemingly watching the clouds go by, or something like that. He smiled, despite himself, because Harper and Stephanie looked so much alike in that moment. Sometimes it was such a dream, like a painting that his mind had conjured up to torture him. Except this was as real as he could think something up.

He decided right then and there that if he was to go back to his old life, if somehow he got transported back to where he used to be someone else that he didn't want to remember this at all. No, if he was forced to go back to that other life, the one that seemed only a distant memory, a wave that was being pulled back to sea, then he would need to forget this moment, and all the previous moments, and all the moments that he'd be blessed with after this one. It was the only way that he could survive going back, because otherwise, if he remembered it all, it would be the absolute end of him.

"Sorry," he said as they caught up to him.

"Will you quit being mad?"

"I'm_ not_ mad," he insisted.

"Chris, I've been married to you forever, we've been together forever," she said, not catching her words and not realizing that those words weren't the truth, at least not for the incarnation of her that stood before him, "I would think that I would know a little something about you, so don't insult me with this crap."

"What crap? I asked you something, you didn't want to know, end of story."

"But you obviously _want_ me to know," she told him. "So will you please just tell me before you drive me crazy and I pull my hair out?"

"Fine, I retained the belt at WrestleMania X-8," he told her. "I didn't lose to Paul."

"Okay…and?" she prodded.

"That's it, that's what changed everything. Everything up until then, up until that storyline had been the same, and then we're having the affair storyline and everything is different, everything changed."

"Oh," she said, avoiding his gaze, "We went through with the affair then?"

"Well, Paul had no problem with it obviously because he was with Joanie, so why would he care if you and I were going to be together on-screen. He actually wanted Joanie to get involved with us, like he'd be on her side and I'd have you by my side, a feud."

"Yeah, I see," she said, gazing down at Kolt, whose hat had almost gone completely over his eyes.

"Don't you think it's cool that we really got to do that storyline? It was a hit too, people loved it, they thought it was perfect."

"That's nice," she said nonchalantly.

"What's wrong?"

"It wasn't Paul that was against that idea," she confessed to him, "It was me."

"No it wasn't, you didn't even say anything. Paul was the one who came up with the bogus excuse of Hunter not being the type of guy whose wife would cheat on him. He's the one that was so outspoken about it."

"No, he wasn't, it was me," she told him, looking at him straight in the eyes, "I didn't want to be in such close proximity to you so I convinced Paul that it would've been a really terrible idea and it would've taken away from all the spotlight being on his glorified return and run for the title. He was the one that spoke out because I asked him to."

"But…why would you do that? That storyline would've been great, Stephanie."

"Yeah, for who? The fans? You? I'm sorry, but I needed to preserve myself," she told him sharply "I was thinking about _my_ well-being, and there was just no way that I could've done that storyline with you."

"Why? I mean, that's what everything had been building up to anyways."

"If you don't know why, then you don't know me much at all…or who I used to be…or…whatever, you know what, whatever," she said angrily, staring straight ahead as she kept walking, her nice walk being ruined.

"It was because of Jessica, right?"

"Of course it was!" she said, then lowered her voice as she saw some people starting to stare at them. "Partly. You know, I had to psyche myself up for those two kisses that we shared? And I would cry myself to sleep those nights because it was just a reminder of what I lost. Then I had to go through all the fucking questioning again of why she was so much better than me. So yeah, I'm sorry that I didn't like your storyline idea."

"Steph, it's okay, it didn't happen," he told her. "Not here, it didn't happen."

"Yeah, I know, but, it still hurts…a little," she said, because no matter how angry she got, it really didn't hurt that much. "May the Lord let me forget that next, because I really, really want to forget about all of that."

"Well…here it went over really well, ratings bonanza," he said, trying to ease the tension, but it wasn't quite working. Stephanie was off in her own little world and he wondered where she was right now. He must've been stupid or something, or blind in his other life. How could he not see how much he had hurt her, how could he not see the pain that was so clear to him now?

"You know," he said quietly, "sometimes you think you're doing the right thing for someone, and you believe that so much that you don't see how much you hurt that person. I thought I was doing you a favor that day."

"You weren't," she said lightly.

"I see that now," he told her. "I should've seen in then."

"It's fine," she said unconvincingly. "Let's just go to the park."

"I'm not perfect, Steph."

"Neither am I," she responded. "Neither are they, the ones who did get it all, nobody is, I'm not saying that what you did was wrong, you thought it was right, whatever, it's gone, done with, we're not those people anymore, at least I don't feel like I am."

"I guess we're not," he said.

They continued to walk in silence towards the park, content in listening to Harper talk to herself and Kolt cooing as he awakened from his brief nap. Chris reached out silently with his left hand and took Stephanie's right hand in his. There were no looks exchanged, no words, it was just a gesture with nothing behind it. They were married, they were here, with children, he just wanted to hold her hand. And it was the most natural thing in the world in that moment.

"Ooh, look, Mommy!" Harper exclaimed suddenly, pointing towards the side of the street where she could see a shiny quarter gleaming back at her.

Before Stephanie could say anything, Harper was running towards it and then it was as if time froze, and since they weren't even in their world to begin with, maybe time _did _freeze and they were kept in animated motion. Stephanie tried to go after her, looking to her left and seeing the car before seeing anything else. Chris looked too and it was like tunnel vision as his eyes focused on his little girl stepping into the street to pick up something shiny and pretty. She was oblivious, like most three-year-olds were, not even noticing the terror in her parent's eyes as the car continued creeping up closer and closer, bearing down on her with each passing second.

Chris was running, pushing Stephanie out of the way in the process, pushing everything out of the way to get to his daughter. He was only aware of the sound of his heart beating, seemingly in his ears, the rush of blood propelling him forward. He could only see her, only focus in on her as the rest of the world went blurry. He got to her pulling her back from the street just as the car rushed by, not even noticing that there had been a little girl right in its path not a moment before.

"Harper!" was Stephanie's shrill cry as the sound assaulted Chris's senses, everything being a rush around him.

Chris lifted Harper into his arms, holding onto her tightly, hugging her and almost stealing the breath from her small frame. Stephanie rushed over with Kolt, her eyes still wide with fear, tears welling up rapidly, but not falling as she took Harper from Chris and hugged her just as tightly, Harper not even understanding what the problem was, and such was the innocent and sometimes oblivious nature of the child.

"Don't you ever do that again!" Stephanie told her, her voice muffled from being buried in Harper's shirt. "Don't you scare Mommy like that again!"

"Sorry, Mommy," she said, not understanding what she was apologizing for, but she knew the sound of her mother's voice and took the seriousness of the situation directly from that tone.

"You know better than to run off like that. You always hold my hand, how many times have I told you that?" she asked.

"I'm sorry," she whimpered, tears threatening to fall down her face. She didn't like to get in trouble, and she felt like she was in trouble right then. Chris leaned in to kiss Harper's head, smoothing down her dark hair.

"It's okay, everyone is okay," he said to both of them, trying to assuage both their tears in one swoop. "Let's just go to the park and we'll relax there, okay?" 

Stephanie nodded silently, not letting go of Harper any time soon as Chris took Kolt's stroller back. Stephanie held Harper the entire way to the park, not letting her go even once. She didn't even want to look anywhere but at her little girl. Harper laid her head down on Stephanie's shoulder feeling a little bit on the down side because she felt like she had done something wrong, but Stephanie kept kissing her forehead, so she wasn't exactly sure if she had done something wrong or if she was doing something right.

At the park, Harper was running around in front of them, staying within a safe distance as Chris and Stephanie watched her. Kolt was lying on a blanket they had brought with them, his hat over his eyes again as he kicked his legs happily in the air. Chris rubbed his tummy, making him smile his toothless smile, which was just about all you could see of his face.

"I feel different," Stephanie told him.

"Why?"

"That whole thing, I felt like I was really her mother for the first time, like that's my daughter," Stephanie said. "I've kind of felt a slight distance from her, knowing that I didn't give birth to that little girl, but I feel different now. Ask me anything about her."

"Okay, um…her first birthday, what was it like?"

"We were on the road," Stephanie said with a laugh, "and we had to get a cake quickly but didn't know where to look for one in that city. All the wrestlers were there, and she cried because she didn't know what was going on."

Chris laughed, "Yeah, that sounds like a lot of fun."

"I've never felt like this, I feel so…maternal…and you, thank you for saving her."

"She's my little girl too," and the words just seem to fall from his lips as he realized that the feeling in Stephanie was one matched in his own self. "Wow, she's _my_ little girl too."

"You feel it too, don't you?" she asked. "You feel the same way."

"Yeah, I believe I do," he said, chuckling a little bit as Harper came back over and fell unceremoniously onto the blanket.

"Daddy, can I have ice cream?" she asked sweetly. "The man with the ice cream is over there." She pointed to an ice cream cart.

"What do you say, Mommy?"

"Well, we were going to have lunch," Stephanie said. "Do you think you can wait until later?" 

"Okay," she pouted a little, but then it was forgotten as she turned on her side and looked at her little brother. "Hi Kolt, Daddy, when can Kolt play and not be a baby?"

"Not for a little while," Chris told her. "He's still a little baby, it's going to take time for him to learn how to walk and talk."

"Oh," she nodded seriously, leaning over to kiss Kolt's cheek. "Grow up already," she told him as Chris and Stephanie laughed.

Another piece had fallen into place.


	29. Chapter 29

Planning is a dangerous thing. You never know what's going to happen, and planning almost seems like tempting fate. A person never knows what's going to happen in the next moment, or the moment after that. Yet we still plan, and we still look ahead because we believe, so much, that every moment will be ours for the taking. We almost don't show any kind of concern for that unknown until everything does change.

Stephanie and Chris had taken every precaution to not plan anything beyond a few days. They just weren't sure that everything they planned would come to fruition. It was better to play things by ear, not to get cocky and think that they were here for the long haul. They tried to act like every day was going to be the last day they got to spend together, and for them, that could absolutely be true.

But now…now they felt different, it felt like it could be okay to plan things. Everything had seemed to change for them, and suddenly they felt like the world of opportunity was in front of them. The realization that they had today, that feeling that washed between them, the final, complete part, the true belief that they could have this, it had made them want to stare that future in the face and win.

"So, I was thinking that we could go to Canada for Christmas and spend it with your parents, I think the kids would enjoy that more than spending it in the city."

"What about your parents?" Chris asked as they lay in bed that evening. They were lying with their bodies going in opposite direction as their head lay next to each other. They were talking quietly so as not to disrupt Kolt, who was lying on Chris's chest.

"We could always invite them to Canada too, we spent last Christmas in Connecticut, and your parents flew down here, maybe we can all go up there. I know it's still a ways away, but it doesn't hurt to start thinking about it."

"At least only your family celebrates Thanksgiving," he chuckled. "So we don't have to worry about who to go to then."

"True."

"Do you think that it's silly that we're planning ahead like this?" he asked her as he ran his fingers up and down Kolt's back. He looked down to his son and saw that he was still awake, though just barely. His eyes were open, but his blinking was slow, like he was trying to ward off sleep. He would give in soon though, Chris could feel it.

That was something else that had changed in them. There were feelings now, no, not feelings like happy, sad, depressed, these were instinctive, knowing what your child wanted, knowing how something felt, or whether or not something was going to work out for them, for their family. They were a family, they felt it in their bones it was so deep. Everything had changed earlier, and that change had seeped into them.

"No," she told him after a second. "Why? Do you think that it's silly?"

"It doesn't feel silly to me," he said. "It feels natural. I feel like we should be planning. I like the idea of going to Canada, your family can definitely come and Harper and Kolt should experience Canadian snow."

"As if it's any different," she snorted.

"It is _way_ different from New York snow, which is all sooty and dirty," he said, "but up there, it's pristine, Harper will like it, we can make snow angels and snowmen, it'll be a blast. She'll love it."

"She does like to visit Canada," Stephanie said easily and even if she had never experienced what she was saying, it still felt natural and like she had actually been there. She was accepting of the changes that were taking over her mind. Instead of being fearful of them, and trying to figure out what was going on, she was just going to ride this wave.

"Yeah, and once Kolt knows what the hell is going on around him, he'll love it up there too," Chris joked.

Stephanie laughed, "Is he asleep yet?"

"Nope," Chris said, rubbing Kolt's foot now, "all the excitement from today is keeping him up, he wants to see what other cool things happen when he's around."

"Or he's just not tired," Stephanie pointed out. "You know…it's weird how you sometimes wonder how things could've turned out. Every person has that what-if that they live with, I just never thought I'd get to live out my what-if."

"Is it better or worse than you thought?" he asked, letting go of Kolt's foot and reaching up to grab Stephanie's hand. "Because if you say worse, I'll get up right now and leave and never come back."

"You'd leave your children?" she asked incredulously. "You know, I hate to say this because Harper is a gorgeous little girl, but, I always pictured a daughter that looked more like you than me, I guess that's the one major difference. Kolt looks like you, I just imagined any little girl would too."

"Funny, because I pictured a girl that looked like you."

"Oh, so it's just you that's controlling the way that things are now, huh? This is all _your_ doing, well, I get it now, you have magical powers and you can change dimensions at will," Stephanie joked as she kissed the back of his hand.

"If I had that power, I'd have gone to another dimension a lot sooner," he told her and he delighted in the sound of her laugh. That was one of the things he had missed most when they had been apart, her laugh. It wasn't so much that it was the most important part of her, the thing he loved most, it was just the thing he saw least in that other world.

From working with her and seeing her, he could see her smiles very easily, even if they weren't directed at him, he could see her frowns, the way her eyebrows furrowed when she was thinking. He could see her being excited or worried, or any other emotion, but she never laughed when he was around. She definitely didn't laugh _with_ him, no, the only times he got to see her laugh were from afar, and he had missed the sound. Some people say that a person's laugh is like a tinkling bell, or a wind chime or something, but Stephanie's laugh, it was like…any other laugh, really, but different, unique, so…Stephanie.

"You pictured a girl looking like me?"

"Yeah," he said. "Why wouldn't I? You're beautiful, why the hell would you want a little girl that looks like me?"

"I don't know, your eyes, I guess," she told him. "I just figure if there's anything that I really want to see twice over in this world, it would be your eyes, I guess…well, I guess I kind of got that anyways, they have your eyes, both of them."

"Well, I don't know about Kolt, his eyes could still change color a little bit," he said as he glanced down at his son, "still not asleep, I think he's going to outlast us both."

"Are you tired?" she asked, "because if you're tired, I could take him from you. WE could just go sit in the living room and watch TV together, or you know, I could take him for a drive, that always puts him to sleep."

"Yeah, except driving in New York is always an adventure," he said. "I'm fine though, I'm not tired, today gave me too much adrenaline, I'm not tired in the slightest, I like this, just talking, it…helps, you know?"

"Yeah, I know what you mean," she said, not needing the actual words. It just felt good to be able to talk like this again, when the awkwardness of their speech has completely disappeared. It was like old times again, and that was such a comfort to the both of them, everything had seemed to come full circle, they were just themselves again, together and happy.

"So…Christmas, huh?" he said, going back to their earlier conversation. He wanted to do more planning, planning meant a future, and he wanted a future with her, he wanted to cement it. Who gave a damn what would happen, they had a future again and he wanted to plan for it.

"Yeah, we'll have to start buying things soon, just to beat the rush," she told him. "Plus, this is Kolt's first Christmas, so it should be special enough. He probably won't understand a thing that's going on…should we bring him to see Santa?"

"No way, don't you remember what happened when we brought Harper when she was a baby?" Chris asked her, not even thinking that she might not even remember this incident. It was just…something he said.

She thought for a moment, "Oh yeah, she screamed her head off and I had to take her away…yeah, maybe keeping Kolt away from Santa is a good thing, although he's a lot more even-tempered than Harper was at this age. He might not care."

"I'd rather not take my chances, I don't need more overbearing parents looking at us like we were the scum of the earth," he said distastefully. "We can just wait until the idea of a fat man in a bright, red suit doesn't terrify a child."

"Harper's definitely going to want to see him, I bet she knows exactly what she wants."

"Yeah, she likes to plan ahead like that, reminds me of someone I know," Chris said knowingly.

"Hey!" Stephanie cried indignantly. "I resent that, planning things ahead is a very good quality to have."

"Yeah, but you lay everything out there perfectly to the second," he kidded.

"Shut up," she said, pushing his hand away playfully. He laughed and went back to rubbing Kolt's back. "Come on, kiddo, let's try and get some shut-eye, you're only two months old, you should be sleeping all the time."

"You sure you don't want to give him to me, he might feel better, I'm way more cuddly than you are."

"You sure don't seem to think that when we're sleeping, you're the one who cuddles up to me at night," he told her, turning his head just a little to look at her. "But if you really want him, you can take him."

"No, he's probably comfortable, best not to move him…hey, Chris?"

"Hmm?" he mumbled as he focused most of his attention on getting Kolt to sleep. The little boy was quite defiant in his want to stay up. Chris had to admire it a little bit since it meant Kolt already had some of Chris in him, and a little Steph as well.

"Do you want more?"

"More than what?" he asked, not understanding her question.

"No, I mean, more…uh, children," she explained. She had been thinking about it for a little bit, and now that they were planning, it felt...like this was something they could honestly discuss and honestly see in the future.

"Oh, wow, that's a question right there," he said, not actually answering the answer. "I mean, Kolt is only a few months old, you know, and well…I mean, I know that you didn't actually _have_ him, so it's not like you've actually been pregnant before."

"That's why I asked," she said. "I mean, I remember all this stuff, and I _feel _like they're my children, that's not the problem, I just…I _know_ that I didn't have them, and I just want…I want to experience that."

"I understand," he said. "So I'm assuming you want more then."

"Yeah, I…I do," she told him. "Not right now, of course, but in the future, it would be a discussion, don't you think?"

"I think it'd be a pretty short discussion, if you want one, then I'm all for that, and that can be whenever you want," he told her. He would never say no to her, not about this. It had been his dream, one fostered so long ago to have children with her. If she told him she wanted ten more kids, he'd be all for that too. Now that he had what he wanted, everything that he wanted, there was just no way that he'd back down from anything.

She laughed, "Good, I'm glad that we had this talk then."

"As am I," Chris said and looked down to Kolt who was finally asleep. "He's down for the count."

"Finally," Stephanie said, stretching her arms above her head. She stood up off the bed and took Kolt off of Chris's chest gently, careful not to wake up the little boy again and have to wait more than two hours to go back to sleep. She cradled him in her arms, letting him snuggle against the soft fabric of her t-shirt in his slumber. Chris turned on his side to watch her as she left the room. He climbed back under the covers and laid on his back, closing his eyes a little bit, feeling sleep drift over him like it had drifted over his son.

A few minutes later, he felt Stephanie's weight press into the mattress and climb over him to her side of the bed. He opened his eyes just as the lights went out and Stephanie cuddled up to him, sighing in content as she found the perfect spot, her right leg thrown over his and her arm across his middle. He wrapped his right arm around her and kissed the crown of her head as he closed his eyes again.

"Night baby, love you," Chris whispered.

"Love you too," she said.

Sleep fell over them then, a deep sleep since they had to delay bed until their son was asleep. Sleep was a commodity with such a young child, but they had gotten used to it over the time they had spent in this world; they were adapting in more ways than one. They kept the same positions, not wanting to move out of the other's grasp, even in sleep they wanted to remain entwined with each other, cling to each other until they were forced to break their hold.

The next day was beautiful, the kind of day that you knew was just going to be great. Chris opened his eyes and smiled to himself before closing them again, not even wanting to see more of the day so far. He just wanted to lay in bed and take in the morning for a while, then Kolt would start crying, wanting to be fed, and Harper would run into the room and want to play and she'd jump on the bed and come in between him and Stephanie and demand breakfast, pancakes or cereal or whatever.

He opened his eyes again and blinked to get the sleep out. He looked around, sleep still muddling his brain. He looked down and caught a flash of blonde hair…wait…blonde hair?

"Morning, baby."

"Jess?"


	30. Chapter 30

His heart sank.

"Jess?"

"Hey," she said, looking up at him, "did you sleep well?"

He thought back to what was now to him, just a dream. How could it have been so vivid though? But how could it have possibly been real at the same time? He should've known better. He should've known that what felt like an eternity was all just crammed into eight hours worth of sleep. He was so stupid for believing that he could've gotten what he wanted. This was what he had and this was what he had to live with.

"Yeah, I slept remarkably well," he said sullenly.

She looked up at him and he missed the look on her face, "I'm glad that you slept well, I slept…well, I didn't get much sleep, it was hard to fall asleep actually, I don't know what it was."

"Yeah, that's too bad," he said, getting out of bed and stretching his arms. Yes, this was his room, he remembered it well now, the dresser over there, the bed right there, the ever-present Florida sun blaring into the room, making it bright and cheery. He was not feeling bright nor cheery right now, in fact, he had never felt so low in his entire life.

He looked down at his hands. They could still feel Stephanie's smooth back against them, they could still feel the small solidness of his son, and his chest could feel the small weight of Kolt pressed against it. How could that have all been fake? How could he remember the feeling, the touch, the memories if it had all been just a dream? But there was Jessica, lolling around in bed and it wasn't like he was going to walk down the hallway and see Harper running around trying to find her missing shoe.

"Chris, is everything okay?" she asked, giving him a look that he couldn't decipher, or didn't want to decipher.

"Yeah," he said, forcing himself to give her a smile, but it came out small and pathetic at best. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Are you sure? Are you sure that's all you are, do you want to talk about anything?" she asked of him, and looked at him like she wanted to speak about something.

"What do you think of the name Kolt?" he asked.

"Kolt…" Her voice was slow and deliberate as she let it roll off her tongue. Chris was focusing on his hands again. Just last night…or in his dream, he had been caressing his son's back, trying to get him to sleep, planning what he would get him for his first birthday. He didn't want to forget Kolt or Harper, he didn't want to forget. "Kolt?"

"Yeah, Kolt," he said.

She looked down at the sheets, fiddling with them a little bit, "I think it's a beautiful name, strong, very strong."

"I think so too," he said. "I'm going to go get dressed."

"Okay," she said, and for a moment it seemed that her voice matched his mood, sullen and almost unwillingly withdrawn. She stared at his back as he walked into their walk-in closet, and she noticed how his shoulders seemed to slump under the weight. She wondered if he would tell her what was bothering him, if he would confess that something _was_ bothering him at all.

He walked into the closet and closed the door behind him locking it. He sunk down among his clothes, sitting there with his back to the door. He couldn't believe this. He couldn't believe that he had gotten everything he had wanted and then it was snatched away from him. He felt…heavy, everything felt heavy and like it wasn't the right colors. This was not the right life, he knew that now, this was not what made him happy.

He lifted his head back against the wall and his eyes were reddened with unshed tears. They were burning in his eyes, wanting to fall, but he couldn't let them. Dear God, he could still hear Harper's chattering in his ear. He could almost hear Kolt's crying, like it was just off in the distance, like he could _just_ make it out. He closed his eyes and still heard the sounds, and it pained him to know that he couldn't reach out and grab them.

He opened his eyes again and let the sounds of his children, his _imaginary_ children, fade from his mind. He got up and mechanically got dressed, not even caring about his appearance. Why should he care now that he lost it all? He checked himself in the mirror and swiped at his eyes, getting rid of the tears before they could exit his eyes. He went and opened the door to the closet, startled to see Jessica standing right there.

"Geez, Jess, don't scare me like that," he told her.

"Sorry," she told him, staring up into his eyes. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I just…I had…no, you know what, I'm cool, I'm fine," he told her. "You're free to use the closet now, I'm just going to brush my teeth really quickly and then I have some work to be done."

"Chris…have you thought anymore to what I said about having kids?" Jessica asked, looking at him critically. "I mean, just about us having them in the first place?"

He stopped and took a deep breath as he pictured Harper and Kolt, so perfect in his eyes, would they fade over time? "I haven't really thought about it, Jess."

"Okay…and Chris…if something's bothering you…tell me," she told him, her voice soft and almost pleading, "just tell me."

"I'm fine," he reasserted. He went and brushed his teeth then went into his office. He sat down in his chair and looked straight ahead. He didn't know what to do, just looking around as if for any sign that last night had been real, or the last month, or however long it had been. He even checked the bottom drawer to see if the pictures were in there, they weren't. Then he decided he just needed to bite the bullet…he needed to call Stephanie. Maybe she had the same experience, maybe he wasn't crazy and she could confirm that.

He dialed her number after looking it up and waited, "Hello?"

Damn it, it was Paul, "Uh, hey…Paul, this is Chris…Chris Irvine, you know, from when…"

"I know who you are," Paul said gruffly, but it didn't hold the usual disdain.

"Oh okay, yeah, uh, can I speak to Stephanie then please?"

"Why?"

"Can I just speak to her?"

"She's busy right now," Paul said. "So I wouldn't bother calling back, she said that she didn't want to be disturbed all day today and I don't think she'd appreciate hearing from you, so you can just go now, bye."

"Wait!" But it was to deaf ears as Paul had already hung up. Chris sulked and felt like crying again. He was doomed. Plus, who was he kidding? It was all seemingly a dream anyways, the Stephanie of this world wouldn't even give him the time of day, yes, it was just like usual. He sighed and felt two hands running up his back.

"Just talk to me, Chris, just please…talk to me," Jessica whispered into his ear.

"I'm _fine_," he said emphatically. "Why can't you just leave me alone?"

"Because…I'm your wife," she told him slowly.

"Yeah I know," he said bitterly, and if she picked up on it, she didn't say anything. "I just…I don't want to talk about it."

"But there is an it then…Chris…"

"Stop!" he said. "I'm going out for a drive."

"Okay," she responded, letting him go. He stalked out of the room and down the hallway, but it seemed like everything was spinning out of control around him. Finally, he just sank to the top of the stairs, sitting there, head in hands. It felt like everything was spinning around him, like he couldn't even take a step downstairs, like everything was black down there, black and gloomy and he didn't want this life.

Meanwhile, Stephanie was sobbing in her bed as Paul watched from the doorway. Finally, he came over and sat next to her, rubbing her back, which only seemed to make her sob harder. He stared down at her prone figure, the only movement the heaving of her chest to fill her sobs. He leaned down and kissed the back of her head, lovingly caressing her hair as his own eyes filled with tears, most of them for sadness, some of them over the obvious agony running through Stephanie right now.

* * *

Chris felt Jessica sit next to him. He didn't want to be near her, but he couldn't move. She grabbed his left arm and ran both her arms around it, holding onto it tightly, like if she let go, everything would be gone. "Are they beautiful?"

"What?" Chris asked, looking at her, startled.

"Kolt and Harper, are they beautiful?"

"Wait, how do you…what the hell is going on?"

* * *

"You miss them, huh?" Paul asked.

"Miss who?" she asked as she turned on her side to look up at Paul.

"Harper and Kolt."

"But…what?"

* * *

"You're dreaming," she said. "Well, no, that's not true, I just…I just know that this isn't where you're supposed to be. I know that you're supposed to be with Stephanie and your kids, don't tell me how I know, I can't…I don't…I just know."

"But…how could you know about my dream?"

"It's not a dream."

* * *

"Your kids, right, with Chris," Paul said. "Harper and Kolt, those are such cool names, if we had ever gotten kids, I think I'd like those names, you must've been the one to come up with them."

"But…you know about that?"

"Yeah, just that though, not much else, don't ask me how I know, I just kind of do."

"But…I thought that was a dream."

"No, no dream, it was more like…It was like a second chance you know. Like sometimes, we get second chances, that was your second chance."

"And they took it away from me?"

"No…they're taking this away from you," he told her.

* * *

"But you're here," he said, "and I'm here, and Steph's not here."

Jessica rolled her eyes, "It's called a second chance, Chris, we all get them, we just don't know it when it happens, we forget…they gave us this chance to say goodbye, you're not really here, you're still there, in body, but they're letting you say goodbye, they're letting _me_ say goodbye."

"I don't believe it."

"Well, it doesn't matter," she said, sighing, "I'm going to miss this, Chris."

"Wait, if I just…what will happen to you when I go back?"

* * *

"They're taking me away?"

"No, this is your second chance, not with me," he chuckled, "with Chris…I'm really kind of just a figment of your imagination, or I will be."

"So everything that happened with me and you, that _did_ happen, right?" she asked.

"Yeah, it happened, but you'll forget about it, in due time, you'll forget about it. They just wanted to give us this opportunity to say goodbye."

"Us?"

"Me and Jessica."

* * *

"Well, I'm not entirely sure," she told him. "I don't think we just fade away, I mean, we do in your mind."

"Wait, I won't remember?"

She gave him a look and held onto him a little tighter. "You will, for a little while. I'll be this weird dream that you had, strange, really, not even a memory, a dream, and then it'll fade, and maybe sometimes…you'll remember it, and it'll be nothing, and you'll be happy because you _are_ happy over there."

"I'm sorry…"

"Don't be, I don't think I'm going to go away, I just think…I think you're going away, and you get this amazing second chance," she told him. "Make the most of it, okay?"

* * *

"You were a good husband," she told him. "Just so you know…will I remember that you were a good husband? I didn't settle for you, Paul, I swear it, you came to me just in time, just when I needed saving."

He laughed, playing with her hair again. "I know, trust me, I know…and I don't think you're going to remember me, I think that I'll just be a strange dream that you had once upon a time, and then…well…no matter now, tell me this, what am I like over there? Am I a huge asshole?"

"No," she said, "You're with Joanie." She watched him as she said that and his face changed, almost became serene and she had to smile that that. "Maybe that's _your_ second chance, right, Paul?"

He looked at her and he actually looked choked up thinking that it might actually be his second chance too. He had always regretted what had happened between him and Joanie; it was nice to know that somewhere…even if he could never experience it…that him and Joanie had found their own happy ending. She rubbed his arm supportively, "Joanie, huh?"

"Yeah, and she's pregnant."

She'd never seen him smile like that, never, it was…luminous, "Wow, me and Joanie and a baby, wow…"

"You're happy," she told him, leaning up to hug him, "You have a great knack for making girls happy, Paul, I hope you know that."

"I know, you just…you loved him, and I understand that," he said.

"See, you _must_ be a dream because you'd never really say that," she joked with him. "We're both happier over there."

"Good."

* * *

"Don't worry, I will."

"What am I like over there?" she asked eagerly, "I've been dying to know."

"Uh…well…see…"

"Oh no, it's bad, right? I'm dead aren't I?" she said, looking down.

"No, you just have a bunch of kids by different guys and you kind of…well, I went to see you, because I didn't know what was going on and you came on to me even after I said that I was married."

"Oh God," she said, covering her face. "I can't believe…well, I'm going to choose to forget _that_."

He kissed her temple. "I did love you, Jess, you made me happy."

"Just not as happy as you could've been. Are you ready now, Chris?"

"So this is really a second chance?"

"Yes, everyone gets them, we just never remember when we do, but it happens for all of us. When you're seventy and you remember a strange dream you had, think of me fondly, okay, remember me as a good dream and not a nightmare."

"I promise."

* * *

"I think we should leave it like this," Paul said. "Have fun, okay, and if you see me and remember this as a dream, well, I'm probably happier over there."

"I know, I love you, Paul, thank you."

"No, Steph, thank you."

* * *

"Daddy, Daddy, wake up, wake up, wake up," Harper said as she shook Chris.

"What, what's going on?" Chris said as he turned on his side.

"Daddy, you were s'posed to take me to the liberry, and I wanna go," Harper said, leaning her chin on the bed as she looked at him.

"What time is it, Harp?"

"I don't know, Daddy," Harper said, "I can't read time."

He looked over, "Harp, it's only six in the morning, go back to sleep."

"Can I sleep with you and Mommy then?" she asked, but she was already climbing into the bed so she had no regard for Chris's answer, she was just going to sit there anyways. She hit Stephanie with her leg and Stephanie stirred.

"Chris, stop."

"It's not me," he said as Harper settled in between them.

"Oh hey, sweetie," Stephanie said as she pulled Harper closer to her. "Let's go back to sleep, huh?"

"Yes, Mommy," Harper said as she settled against Stephanie.

Stephanie looked at Chris, who look at her and smiled, she smiled back and then, in unison, they both spoke.

"I had the strangest dream."


	31. Chapter 31

**Disclaimer: The poem in the chapter doesn't belong to me, it's in the public domain though so you know, it belongs to the world, but mostly to the author, Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542).

* * *

**

A/N: Thank you all SO much for all the reviews for the last chapter. I'm so pleased that you enjoyed it. I loved writing this story. It was different and new and strange, but I loved it. This is the final chapter and thanks for sticking with it and reading it. Thank you. :)

And on a side note, since you're done reading this weird, AU fic, I started another AU fic, "Under the Watchful Eye," so check that out if you're interested. :)

* * *

Second chances can be beautiful. They can be everything you ever wanted in your life, and they can be everything that you don't want. Everyone gets one at some point or another, everyone gets to experience something that they didn't get before, and in some cases, it doesn't work out. Then in some other cases, it does, and the days pass and the nights fade to day and you're so thankful you got that second chance. Then sometimes, you don't even know you were granted a second chance, so everyday isn't a gift, it's mundane and routine, but somewhere, deep inside of you, that old you, the one you used to be, is so very happy.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing," Chris said as he continued to stare at the computer screen in front of him, not even glancing at his wife.

"You're writing _again_?" Stephanie groaned as she came further into the room, "Oh my God, you have not stopped working on that for the past few months, I think you've forgotten that you have a wife and two kids."

"I haven't forgotten," he protested as he looked away from the screen to look at her, "wait, what's his name again?"

"Kolt, this is Kolt, remember him, seven-month-old son, does he get a place in your book or is he not good enough for it?"

"Well, I was contemplating it, you know, I kind of wanted to keep it light, but Kolt is just way too serious for me, I might just pretend like I don't have a son," he said, "even though this is an autobiography and excluding my son might not be that nice."

"Yes, and he'd be very upset when he's a grown up and he goes down to read your book and finds himself conveniently not in it," she said as Kolt tried to get her mouth, grabbing at her lip and trying to look at her teeth. She pushed him away as he pouted and tried to get at her again. She rebuked him again. "Do you think that you can come and help me with your children, or are you too busy to even do that?"

"No, I'm not that busy, but I do have a deadline, you know," he told her, standing up and stretching his arms over his head. He leaned in to kiss her cheek, "Have I told you that I really appreciate you getting the suite with the extra room so that I can type and be in peace?"

She rolled her eyes, "Harper is bored out of her mind, I thought we could take them down to the pool downstairs. If anything, that'll keep them occupied for a while, and I did bring some swim diapers for Kolt."

"You always plan ahead," he said. "But that's fine, we'll go down there, it'll make them sleep harder for their nap."

"I know, that's my reasoning," Stephanie laughed as Chris wrapped his arm around her waist and kissed her cheek. They went out into the common room where Harper was watching something on the television, but she looked supremely bored.

"Hey there, Harp, you want to go swimming?"

"Yeah!" Harper yelled, jumping off the couch and straight into Chris's arms, and he barely caught her. "Let's go!"

"First, we should get dressed," Chris said as he took her into the room to get her into her bathing suit as Stephanie followed suit with Kolt.

Once they were situated, they went down to the hotel pool, which was indoors. Chris got in first, taking Kolt while Stephanie got in the water, taking back her baby. Harper, with the arm floats they had bought in the hotel gift shop on her arms, jumped into the water near Chris, kicking her little legs out as she "tread" water.

Stephanie walked Kolt around, dunking him in the water every now and then, delighting in his face when it would go wide, not remembering how being in the water felt even though he had been in a pool several times. Stephanie's smile lit up her face as Chris watched her, before Harper took all his attention. Stephanie kept walking around with him when she saw Paul walking out of the adjacent gym area.

"Paul!" she called out.

He looked up from his concentrated walking (since he's so intense about _everything_) and smiled when he saw Stephanie. She came to the edge of the pool, sitting Kolt on the deck as she leaned her arm on the cool cement, "Hey Steph, what's up?"

"The kids were bored so we decided to go for a swim," she said, looking at Kolt who was clapping his hands together and watching the water droplets that fell from them.

"Fun," he said, looking down at the little boy with his downy hair.

"How's Joanie?" Stephanie asked, seeing as how Joanie had stopped traveling about two months ago to focus her time on her pregnancy.

"She's getting so big," Paul said proudly as he sat down on deck across from Kolt. If there was anything that he wanted to discuss, it was Joanie and her pregnancy and how great everything was going. "I barely even recognize her, she just looks great."

"And how are the babies?" Yes, babies, he and Joanie were going to have twins, which was a crazy thought for the both of them, but a welcome one at that.

"They're great, going strong and everything, we're excited, I still almost can't believe it, you know," he said, playing with Kolt's hand. "I just…I get two of these, two, it's pretty crazy."

"Wait until you experience your first week, then you'll be changing your tune," Stephanie joked. "This one loved to wake up in the middle of the night and cry his eyes out. And you'll have two of all things, so you'll be up to your ears in diapers and tears, it'll be great."

"I'm looking forward to it, I didn't know how much I wanted kids until she ended up pregnant."

"Hey, did I ever tell you about this crazy dream I had about you?" Stephanie asked.

Hunter glanced over her shoulder at Chris, who was busy getting splashed by Harper, "Are you sure you want to say anything with your husband right there?"

"Oh, I told him about it, we had a great laugh over it," she said. "It's just one of those things that is so random that you have to tell the person that was in it with you."

He laughed, "So what was it?"

"We were married," she told him and his eyes widened, "Yeah, I know, right, crazy?"

"That's pretty wild," he said.

"Yeah, we didn't have kids or anything, we were just married, it was like…we got together because of when we worked together a long time ago, during the McMahon-Helmsley Era, and we got married and it was so weird, and Chris wasn't even in the picture. Crazy dream."

"Wow, that really sounds it," he laughed, "I've never dreamt about you, sorry, Steph."

"No sorry needed," she said, "I just thought that I'd pass that on to you, you were a good husband though, so you had that going for you."

"Well, I'm glad that the me in your dream was nice to you," he said. "I'm going to go though, I've got to call Joanie and check-in, she has an appointment tomorrow and I want to make sure that she has someone to go with."

"Okay, and tell her I said hi," Stephanie said.

"Will do."

Stephanie watched him walk away and got the fleeting feeling of that dream, just for a second ands he smiled as if it were a distant memory even though she had never been married to Paul or even really wanted to date Paul. She had been engaged to Chris even before he had debuted, so why would she want Paul? She grabbed Kolt and dipped him in the water, dunking him and pulling him up as he sputtered a little water and gave her a dirty look.

"Oh come here, you," she said, kissing his cheek and going back over to where Chris and Harper were swimming about.

Stephanie checked on Kolt one more time to make sure he was actually asleep. Harper was asleep on the bed next to his crib, the two of them out like lights after tiring themselves out in the pool. A bath and diaper change for Kolt and they were taking their naps together and leaving Chris and Stephanie to their peace and quiet. Well, leaving Stephanie, since Chris was back to working on his book.

She walked into the common room where he had moved his laptop to the round table in the corner. She came up behind him and wrapped her arms around his neck. He turned and kissed her cheek before his fingers started to move deftly against his keyboard once again. She was content to watch him for a few seconds before she circumvented his chair and sat down in his lap.

"This is not helping my writing."

"You pay more attention to that screen than you do to me," she told him, kissing along his jaw. "Pay attention to _me_."

"Wow, needy much," he said as he hugged her and rested his head against her shoulder.

"What are you writing right now?" she asked, looking at the screen but not reading what was written on it. "Is it about me? Are you writing about how awesome a wife you have and how you have the best life in the world because your wife is just so great?"

"No, I _am_ talking about you however," he said as he held her tighter against him.

"What about me?"

"When we broke off our engagement," he told her.

"Chris," she groaned, "we broke it off for two weeks and it was so stupid, you can't include that."

"I'm writing about my _life_, that was part of my life," he said.

"We broke it off because you wouldn't get yourself released from your contract to come over to the WWF and I got angry, but then I realized it was stupid."

"No, I made you realize it was stupid," he reminded her.

"Let me read what you wrote," she said, shifting in his lap and scrolling up on the page to read exactly what he had written about the incident.

_Deciding that I was going to marry that woman (or die trying), I thought of the best way to get that stubborn woman to let me back into her life. One thing every person should know about Stephanie McMahon is that she will not back down from anything. When she told me she wasn't marrying me because of conflict of interests, I knew I'd have an uphill battle. I know what you're all thinking, that's what you get for falling for the daughter of your boss's rival, but if any of you have _seen_ Stephanie McMahon, you know she's hard to resist._

_So I did what any red-blooded male would do when they have a hot chick that they want to be with. I groveled, and don't even tell me that none of you guys out there haven't groveled in some form. So I went and I groveled, and when you grovel with Stephanie McMahon, you have to do it right, so I brought pie charts, graphs, a little pamphlet for her. _

_Needless to say, she turned me down._

_So I went into even worse than groveling mode. I went over to cheesy, yet effective mode. Little known fact, Stephanie loves poetry, so I scoured every book I could find on poetry and then I found it, so I went back to her, had the piece of paper and before she could kick me out of the room, I gave it to her._

"On a piece of paper, binder paper," Stephanie said, turning to him.

"Yes, binder paper," he responded as she went back to the screen.

_So guys, if you really need something to get back the woman you love, here's the poem just right for the occasion:_

_Forget not yet the tried intent_

_Of such a truth as I have meant, _

_My great travail so gladly spent_

_Forget not yet._

_Forget not yet when first began_

_The weary life ye know since whan,_

_The suit, the service none tell can,_

_Forget not yet_

_Forget not yet the great assays,_

_The cruel wrong, the scornful ways,_

_The painful patience in denays,_

_Forget not yet_

_Forget not then thine own aprovyd,_

_The which so long hate thee so lovyd,_

_Whose steadfast faith yet never movyd,_

_Forget not yet._

_-Sir Thomas Wyatt_

_She took me back._

"You're damn right I did, I still love that poem."

"I know," he said, kissing her. "I love you, and I'm glad that got you back to me."

"I love you too," she said.

"You know what my last line is going to be?"

"What?" she asked.

"The stars are still the same," he said, kissing her chin.

"They are, aren't they?"

"Yup," he said.

"Just like you told me they would be."

"Would I lie to you?" he asked.

"Never," she said, leaning into him even more as they sat silently for a second.

Days would pass, and time would go on and there'd be fights and there'd be make-ups. There'd be one more kid, another little boy, and the years would pass, and they'd all grow up, even Chris and Stephanie. Their strange dream would fade, a funny story one of them would bring up every now and again. But it was nothing more than that. And Jessica would completely fade from Chris's mind until Kolt brought home a Jessica one evening long into the future and Chris would smile and somewhere, somehow another Jessica in another time would smile, a pang in her heart that she couldn't recognize, and sometimes, Stephanie would stare at Paul a little longer than she should and somewhere Paul was smiling, and he'd feel a breeze brush against his neck. Still, more years would pass, and time would flutter down and yet, one thing…just one thing left…

The stars they never changed.

THE END


End file.
